Central Park Zoo Chinese mergansers

Chlidonias · 23 Jun 2011

Central Park Zoo Announces Birth of Chinese Merganser Ducklings - NYTimes.com
the first to be bred in North America apparently. Good stuff.

22 June 2011

Make way for ducklings!

But not just any ducklings. This is New York, and our ducklings are rare, posh, and the first to be bred in a North American zoo.

The Central Park Zoo announced on Tuesday that eight endangered Chinese merganser sea ducks were born on April 26.

With prominent Mohawk-like crowns and skinny bills as long and red as tubes of lipstick, Chinese mergansers are endangered, with a population hovering below 2,500, according to the International Union for Conservation. Native to eastern Asia, the ducks, which forage in rivers and sleep in trees, have been threatened by hunting and development.

The zoo acquired two Chinese mergansers last February with plans to breed them. Jeff Sailer, the zoo’s director, said that the heavy foot traffic in the zoo makes it difficult for the mothers to be comfortable, and mergansers are a shy species that breeds in dark, quiet spaces.

“A lot of the art of what we do is with making the birds be comfortable,” he said. They built boxes to simulate hollow logs. “It’s one of those things people spend their entire lives figuring out why it works in one situation and not another,” he said.

The ducklings are currently on view in the aviary of the the children’s zoo.

A study of their behavior in Forktail, a journal of Asian ornithology, reported that the ducks are “opportunist” feeders who eat their fill, then “form groups of birds on the margins of the river where they sleep, preen and loaf.”

Opportunists, who after a hard day’s work preen and loaf by the river? Born New Yorkers.
Click to expand...

Maguari · 23 Jun 2011

Very good news. One of my favourite duck species, and just starting to appear a bit more often in British zoos. Lovely birds, and very much in need of attention, though I prefer the more evocative name 'Scaly-sided Merganser'.

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Central Park Zoo Chinese mergansers

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Maguari Never could get the hang of Thursdays. 15+ year member Premium Member

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Central Park Zoo Chinese mergansers

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Maguari Never could get the hang of Thursdays. 15+ year member Premium Member

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