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An American Pekin duck, a breed of domestic duck derived from the mallard. Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterways – even to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards. [145] Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.
The 2024 Wisconsin spring waterfowl breeding survey showed a continued decline in mallards, the state's most abundant duck species, and a year-over-year drop in total ducks as well as Canada geese.
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.
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.
As such, game-farm males are overly aggressive breeders, females have prolonged breeding periods, produce excessive numbers of eggs and show poor anti-predator vigilance compared with wild mallards.
This is a list of the breeds of domestic duck which have official recognition at national or international level. [1]Most breeds of duck derive from the wild mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, while a small minority are descendants of the Muscovy duck, Cairina moschata.
The breeding duck index in North Dakota, at 3.4 million birds, was up 1.5% from 2022 and 39% above the long-term average since 1948. "As with all May waterfowl surveys, we are counting what ...
They can be distinguished from most ducks on size, shape, and the speculum. Separation from female common teal is problematic. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female. It is a common duck of sheltered wetlands, such as taiga bogs, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing. It nests on the ground ...