Hundreds of ducks killed when they mistook wet roads for wetlands, Iowa officials say

A “unique weather phenomenon” caused hundreds of waterfowl to be killed Monday in Iowa, state officials said.

The ducks mistook wet parking lots and roadways for wetlands and marshes Monday night in Woodbury County, leading to them being struck by vehicles, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“I counted over 200 dead ducks on the highway, and can only imagine how many dead ones were out of sight in the ditch,” State Conservation Officer Steve Griebel said in a news release. “It was all different species – mostly bluebills, but there were mallards, buffleheads, teal. It must have been an epic migration.”

Because of extremely cold temperatures, the ducks were migrating south from Canada and the Dakotas when they needed to rest because of the inclement weather, officials said.

State waterfowl biologist, Orrin Jones, said a combination of bad weather and where the ducks tried to land caused them to be disoriented, according to Iowa Radio.

“This is a unique, one-time event that there’s nothing much we could do about, and should be over now,” Jones said in a press release.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources compared the incident to a day in the 1950s when more than a foot of snow caused thousands of livestock to die.