Duck

Ducks
A duck (female) and drake (male) Mallard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae
Subfamilies
Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae

Duck is the common name for members of a variety of species of relatively short-necked, large-billed waterfowl in the Anatidae family of birds, and especially those in the subfamily Anatinae ("true ducks"). This family also includes swans, which are larger and have a longer neck than ducks, and geese, which generally are larger and with a less pointed bill.

Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. There are both wild and domestic groups.

Some people use the term "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively.

Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.

Description

Like other Anatidae, true geese have a broad body, partially webbed feet, a somewhat flattened bill with horny lamellae (miniature ridges, like the "teeth of a comb"), and a hard process (the "nail") at the tip of the bill, as well as a large preen gland crowned by a tuft of feathers (Grzimek et al. 2004). Anatidae are excellent at shedding water due to special oils. Ducks all have webs between their front toes.

Among the Anatidae, ***** true ducks ****** (Grzimek et al. 2004). The flight feathers of ducks are molted only once a year, like the geese, and are lost simultaneously so that flying is not possible for that short period of time (Gzimek et al. 2004). However, most true ducks do molt other feathers (the contour feathers) twice a year (Gzimek et al. 2004).

Males of all Anatidae, including the ducks, have a copulatory organ that is evaginated from the cloaca for copulation (Grzimek et al. 2004). Anatidae are remarkable for being one of the few families of birds that possess a penis. However, the sperm do not flow through a central canal, as in mammals, but rather along grooves on the outside (Gzimek et al. 2004).

Most are monogamous. Unlike true geese, which may stay pairded for several seasons, most ducks are seasonally monogamous, with pair bonds lasting only until midincubation or hatching of the young.

Some are survface feeders, such as the mallard and wood duck, and these are common in poinds and marshes. Some are diving ducks, such as the canvasback, thand are found in rivers and lakes. Teh fish-eating duccks, the mergansers, prefer open water.

Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians[1], worms, and small molluscs. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater; Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land. Dabbling ducks have in their beaks special plates called lamellae (Ogden 2006).

similar to a whale's baleen. These tiny rows of plates along the inside of the beak let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. A few specialized species such as the Smew, Goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish.

The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Many species of ducks are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration.

Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory, but others, particularly in the tropics, are not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain.

Taxonomy

True ducks are members of the subfamily Anatinae of the Family Anatidae. Other groups with the name duck are also located in several other subfamilies within Anatidae. The following places the ducks in the context of the order Anseriformes.

ORDER ANSERIFORMES

• Family Anhimidae: screamers
• Family Anseranatidae: the Magpie-goose
• Family Anatidae
  • Subfamily Dendrocygninae: Whistling ducks (sometimes given full family status as the Dendrocygnidae).
  • Subfamily Thalassorninae: the White-backed Duck.
  • Subfamily Anserinae: Swans and geese.
  • Subfamily Stictonettinae: the Freckled Duck.
  • Subfamily Plectropterinae: the Spur-winged Goose.
  • Subfamily Tadorninae: Shelducks and sheldgeese - probably paraphyletic
  • Subfamily Anatinae: Dabbling ducks and moa-nalos
  • Subfamily Aythyinae: Diving ducks (sometimes included in Anatinae)
  • Subfamily Merginae: eiders, scoters, mergansers and other sea-ducks.
  • Subfamily Oxyurinae: Stiff-tailed ducks and allies.
• Family Dromornithidae (fossil): mihirungs
• Family Presbyornithidae (fossil): several genera of wading-"geese", including the oldest known anseriform, Vegavis.

Predators

A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles).

Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks.

Etymology

The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dūce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *dūcan) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare the Dutch word duiken = "to dive").

This happened because the older Old English word for "duck" came to be pronounced the same as the word for "end": other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek νησσα, νηττα (nessa, netta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end".

Ducks and humans

In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target".

Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers and down feathers. They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except Muscovy Ducks. Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog, Rana temporaria, whole.

Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese.

Geese provide several values for humans. For one, many geese serve as food items, being considered a delicacy in a number of cultures.

Foie gras (French for "fat liver") is "the liver of a goose (or duck) that has been specially fattened. Foie gras is one of the most popular delicacies in French cuisine and its flavor is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of a regular goose liver. The technique dates as far back as 2500 B.C.E., when the ancient Egyptians began keeping birds for food and deliberately fattened the birds through force-feeding. Today, France is by far the largest producer and consumer of foie gras, though it is produced and consumed worldwide, particularly in other European nations and the United States.

Confit d'oie (goose) involves goose being macerated in herbs and salt, cooked in savory broth or fat, and then preserved in rendered fat. Such confits are a specialty of the southwest of France (Toulouse, Dordogne, etc.) and are used in refined versions of dishes such as cassoulet. Although confit of goose or duck are now considered somewhat luxurious products, these dishes were used by peasants as a means to store meats for periods of time without refrigeration.

Hunting of geese has been popular historically and currently, and is a lucrative business.

In a wildlife pond, the bottom over most of the area should be too deep for dabbling wild ducks to reach the bottom, to protect bottom-living life from being constantly disturbed and eaten by wild ducks dredging, and domestic ducks should not be allowed in.^{[citation needed]}

Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack".

A common false urban legend says that quacks do not echo.

Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. Spring and early summer months find ducks influencing human activity through their nesting. It is not uncommon for a duck pair to nest well away from water needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard.

Humor

In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters (see the New Scientist article [2] mentioning humor in the word "duck").

In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant.

"Quacks like a duck"

The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.

The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another - not unlike, by the way, the current 'wiki' problem of identifying Sock puppets). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques.

Trivia

• Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head.
• In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. [3] The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. [4]
• A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. [5]

Gallery

• 

  A duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring

• 

  A Domesticated duck

• 

  Some domesticated Ducks

• 

  A Female Mallard with a Duckling Mallard

• 

  African Comb Duck

• Duck-on-ground.jpg

  Mallard drake

• 

  Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae

• 

  Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage

• 

  Female Mallard

• 

  Female Mallard with ducklings

• Muscovy-duck-1.jpg

  Male Muscovy duck

• 

  Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England.

• 

  Ducks in a pond

• Aa ducks and geese 003.jpg

  Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK

• Indian Runner Duck.jpg

  Indian Runner Duck

• Ringed teal.gif

  Ringed Teal

• 

  Red-crested pochard

• 

  Male Muscovy Duck

See also

• Duck crossing
• Duck hunting
• Ducks Unlimited
• Domesticated duck — ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down
• Duck pond
• List of fictional ducks
• Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Gzimek

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:

Duck

• www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes
• "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com)
• Guide to keeping ducks
• Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline
• Duck migration question
• Ducks Unlimited Conservation
• Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans
• Tufted duck (good for foreign names)
• list of books (useful looking abstracts)
• San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population
• Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild)
• Ducks at a Distance, by Rob Hines, available for free via Project Gutenberg - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl.
• Duck Stock Photos

Credits

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