Dennis in MA
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This week's MeatEater podcast is all on ducks. I did not know that Mallards are the mother species to all domesticated ducks.
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2023/2024 Waterfowl Season
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They are not native to the eastern flyway. They come from the Central Flyway and showed up here, supposedly from menagerie releases.
Dennis in MA
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Aaaaactually - they were further talking about it. (It was a 2.5 hour podcast.)
If you shoot a mallard in Massachusetts, it's almost certainly a farm raised duck vintage. "Wild" mallards were in such few #'s back "in teh day" that hunt club ducks were being used. They continue to be used in places like New Jersey. They aren't good ducks. Long legs, short wings. But it's all we have b/c we didn't have a decent population to begin with after the market-hunting of the late 1800's. The fear is that the hunt club ducks (who also suck at water foraging b/c they evolved to better handle grain spread in a pen) are spreading to the central flyway. It's creating issues there as the ducks aren't good travelers and also are more random in their migration, based on telemetry data.
It was a fascinating podcast. At some point, I'll have my S-word together and set up on my river land to bag a few. I thought last year this year would be the year. Nope. Maybe next year. LOL
And my original statement is that all DOMESTIC ducks are mallard-cousins. Peking. Etc, Everyone who bred domestic ducks for meat or eggs ended up using mallards as their mother species. World wide.
If you shoot a mallard in Massachusetts, it's almost certainly a farm raised duck vintage. "Wild" mallards were in such few #'s back "in teh day" that hunt club ducks were being used. They continue to be used in places like New Jersey. They aren't good ducks. Long legs, short wings. But it's all we have b/c we didn't have a decent population to begin with after the market-hunting of the late 1800's. The fear is that the hunt club ducks (who also suck at water foraging b/c they evolved to better handle grain spread in a pen) are spreading to the central flyway. It's creating issues there as the ducks aren't good travelers and also are more random in their migration, based on telemetry data.
It was a fascinating podcast. At some point, I'll have my S-word together and set up on my river land to bag a few. I thought last year this year would be the year. Nope. Maybe next year. LOL
And my original statement is that all DOMESTIC ducks are mallard-cousins. Peking. Etc, Everyone who bred domestic ducks for meat or eggs ended up using mallards as their mother species. World wide.
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The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and The Black Duck (Anas rubripes) are capable of cross breeding. The Black Duck is native to the Eastern Flyway, and when the Mallard was introduced they dominated the breeding. This why you will see a buff-colored bar on a hen Mallard.
