W: I can't believe that duck hunting is still legal in so many parts of the world [8]. The scientific evidence from countries like Australia, Canada, and the USA clearly indicates a decline in the birds' numbers.
M: But can anyone be sure if the decline is really caused by the hunting or by climate change [9]?
W: It's caused by both in fact [9]. We see more droughts in countries like Australia. Ducks are birds that feed and breed in areas where there is a lot of water, but their habitats have been shrinking in recent decades because of the droughts.
M: And I guess with fewer places to inhabit, they concentrate in greater numbers in few areas, which surely makes them easier targets for the hunters.
W: It does. My grandfather was a duck hunter. He told me hunting ducks and geese began in the 19th century. They were easily found and plentifully available food source in farming areas, especially for poor immigrants.
M: What do they use for hunting during that period?
W: They use new types of guns, and birds could easily be shot down in flight, and in such great numbers that commercial hunting of ducks and geese became an industry. Yet, there's no commercial farming of these birds nowadays. Their meat is hardly eaten in western countries [10].
M: No, duck hunting seemingly exists as the continuation of a tradition.
W: Well, ducks have never been popular with farmers like my grandfather anyway because they sometimes destroy crops. In fact, farmers used to poison them in large numbers [11].
M: That somehow doesn't surprise me. Nobody places much value on the lives of these poor birds or on their meat.
8. What does the woman find unbelievable?
9. What does the woman say has caused the shrinking of ducks' habitats in Australia?
10. Why is there no commercial farming of ducks and geese in western countries?
11. What does the woman say about farmers in her grandfather's time?
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