Freckled Ducks, another leadbetters

Freckled Ducks, another leadbetters
13-05-2006

I am really pissed off with zoos at the moment. The following information I have obtained from The Australian Birdkeeper magazine, Vol 19, No. 2. 2006. It is a magazine for birdkeepers.
The freckled duck is Australias most endangered duck species, it's habitat and breeding requirements rely on large rivers, like the Murray darling, flooding, which we all know is rare nowdays.
In the early 1980s 15 eggs were taken into captivity and hatched, beginning a new captive program for the species., in 1993 the breeding colony was dospiersed among several leading zoos and nature reserves. 14 ducks were sent to Slimbridge in the Uk from which a breeding group has since entered private hands and can be found in collections in the UK, Europe, The US and South Africa, non are kept in private hands in Australia.
The zoos created a very successful breeding program amongst themselves but by 2002 the Freckled Duck Management program set up by the zoos had collapsed, the zoos had LOST INTEREST!!
Today there are 16.11 ducks held at Australian zoos, primarily at Melbourne and Healesville. There are others at sanctuaries not listed on ISIS, though not many. I know that melbourne still breeds them occassionly.

Once again the zoos have lost an excelent oppurtuinty in captive breeding an endangered native species. The ducks are not hard to breed in captivity, can be housed with other bird species and don't take up a lot of room. Also they can be reintroduced into the wild, a lot easier than say the Californian consdor, or the leadbetters possum. The ducks are very rare in the wild, there numbers are dropping dramatically and the zoos have let it go. I no longer think that Australian zoos are fair dinkum in their aim to conserve species, freckled ducks, like the possums are not great drawcards, unlike say - ELEPHANTS!!!
If the zoos can lose interest on a native species, where are their real priorities?

Very Disapointed, very Unhappy

Jason

13-05-2006

jason, i completely understand and this sort of thing infuriates me as well. clearly, zoos still prioritse display of exotic species over real high intensity breeding and release programs. zoos victoria is lucky in that it has heallesville sanctuary focusing on this kind of work exclusively - yet they still failed on behalf of the leadbeaters possum. what shits me big time is that the zoos send our native wildlife to overseas zoos before they have even established good sized colonies in all our major zoos!!!!

in fact really shouldn't they just be releasing them before they send any overseas anyway?

the freckled ducks at melbourne are housed in the great flight aviary and as you said are easy to manage and get along well with other birds.

we should send them a letter - though i always find that if i do get a response it is somewhat patronising (they pretend that i know nothing about wildlife) and evasive in answering the real question....

as you well know jay, i often feel the same...

14-05-2006

There are 2 freckleds at adelaide in the coastal avairy, with Orange Bellied Parrots

Freckled Ducks in FNQ
18-05-2006

Hey Jason

You might be intersted to find out that there is a native wildlife park in North Queensland that has a solid collection of freckled ducks (6, unsure of the exact ratio of males to females).

This park concentrates on breeding Australian natives and they haven't lost interest. So there is hope yet. I'm pretty sure they aren't the only ones either.

Zoo Newbie

20-05-2006

I saw the freckies mating today at adelaide so maybe more freckies on teh way!

25-05-2006

I'm glad that several of the native wildlife sanctuaries have freckled ducks. There is an excellent one at Newcastle that has an excellent record of breeding the species. I have visited it once, about 5 years ago and was very impressed with it.

14-04-2007

Paington zoo holds freckled ducks as does the wwf

15-04-2007

I was there some years ago and by the look of their website theres been quite a lot of changes for the better.

15-04-2007

I was at Melb zoo on Friday and only saw 4 freckles in the great flight aviary. I thought they would be like black ducks to keep. A friend who used to have them was overrun as he could not stop them breeding. They used to hide their nests so well the first he knew was more duckings.

15-04-2007

u was ta melb zoo on fri, i was at taronga, wow kool
can u do a thread on hows melb zoo is looking monty?

15-04-2007

I am no zoo expert but as I have heard which animals are to be phased out I took particular interest in those. Unfortunatly they seem to be a large percentage of the animals in the zoo. I will put up a report of what I thought though.

15-04-2007

What species do Freckled ducks mix with?

15-04-2007

Frecles dont seem picky who they mix with. In the wild they are seen at times in flocks of other species of duck.

15-04-2007

Like musk ducks? They are really wierd

15-04-2007

Musk ducks are devils. At one zoo in Oz(can't remember where) I saw them EATING the ducklings of another species....