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The mallard (/ ˈ m æ l ɑːr d, ˈ m æ l ər d /) or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand , Australia , Peru , Brazil , Uruguay , Argentina , Chile , Colombia , the Falkland Islands , and South Africa .
The White Muscovy and the Pekin are the two most common purebred, commercially farmed ducks. Hybrids of the two are hardier and calmer, in addition to exhibiting natural hybrid vigor. [2] The incubation period of the hybrid eggs is between the mallard and Muscovy, with an average of 32 days. About half of the eggs hatch into mulard ducks.
A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage [1] or baby duck, [2] but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender, is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen. [3] [4] Male mallard. Wood ducks.
Ducks are documented in Ancient Rome from the second century BC, but descriptions – such as by Columella – suggest that ducks in Roman agriculture were captured in the wild, not domesticated; there was no duck breeding in Roman times, so eggs from wild ducks were needed to start duck farms. [3] Mallards were domesticated in Eurasia.
The Mariana mallard or Oustalet's duck (Anas oustaleti) is an extinct species of duck of the genus Anas that was endemic to the Mariana Islands.Its taxonomic status is debated, and it has variously been treated as a full species, a subspecies of the mallard or of the Pacific black duck, or sometimes as a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck.
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Possible backcross between a Mallard and American black duck. All the species within the mallard complex are known to hybridize with other members within overlapping ranges. Mallards, both domestic and wild in particular are notorious hybridizers, know to frequently hybridize within the mallard complex and even outside of Anas.
A crest of feathers may appear in any duck breed or type deriving from the wild Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, with a frequency of some 0.0001%–0.001% of all eggs hatched. [9]: 89 It results from the action of a very variable autosomal dominant allele, which is semi-lethal and may display incomplete penetrance as well as incomplete dominance.