Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Mexican Duck is now a species

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Scumter
    Posts
    21,804

    Default Mexican Duck is now a species

    Is official, the Mexican Duck is not a subspecies of a mallard any more.

    https://deltawaterfowl.org/Mexican-duck-new-species/

    Amidst everything else that happened last year, North America quietly gained a new duck species in 2020.

    The Mexican duck, a large, brown-bodied puddle duck found from central Mexico into the southwestern United States, had long been considered a subspecies of the mallard. But last June, the American Ornithological Society deemed that Mexican ducks are a separate species, now known by the scientific name*Anas diazi.

    After much DNA analysis, genetic studies indicate that mallards, black ducks, mottled ducks and Mexican ducks are closely related, yet distinct. And because black ducks and mottled ducks are considered by scientists to be separate species from mallards, ornithologists have decided that Mexican ducks should be their own species, too.

    For the record, the AOS had previously decided in 1983 that Mexican ducks were a subspecies of the mallard based on extensive studies during the 1970s by John Hubbard of the New Mexico Fish and Game Department. Now, the AOS has reversed that decision in part because a 2017 study showed “genetic evidence suggests that hybridization is not as widespread as previously believed.”

    Mexican ducks breed in northern and central Mexico, west-central Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, and seem to be expanding their range. In Sept. 2011, Dr. Chris Nicolai, staff biologist for Delta Waterfowl, was the first person to band a Mexican duck in Nevada. Nicolai worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, Nevada, before joining Delta’s staff last year.

    “I was leading a field trip with 40 undergraduate wildlife students banding ducks,” he recalled. “I heard a student ask, ‘Why does this hen have a yellow bill?’ and I instantly turned around.* Sure enough, it had all the indications of a Mexican duck.”
    Mexican ducks, while not common, are legal to hunt. In Arizona and the Central Flyway portion of New Mexico, regulations allow two hen mallards or “Mexican-like ducks” daily, while Nevada and California don’t distinguish Mexican ducks separately in the bag limit — technically hunters could shoot a full limit of seven per day.

    Meanwhile, Texas regulations lump mottled ducks, black ducks, Mexican-like ducks and their hybrids into a category called “dusky ducks,” and the limit is one dusky duck daily.*—

    By Paul Wait / Delta Waterfowl



    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Delta in a nutshell: Breeding grounds + small wetlands + big blocks of grass cover + predator removal + nesting structures + enough money to do the job= plenty of ducks to keep everyone smiling!

    "For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM...has a flavor the protected shall never know."
    -L/Cpl Edwin L. "Tim" Craft

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    13,499

    Default

    Mergied
    "They are who we thought they were"

    You can dress a fat chick up, but you cant fix stupid

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Carolina Backcountry
    Posts
    12,265

    Default

    cant discriminate anymore. Everyone, even ducks, must come together for equality
    "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
    I am haunted by waters" Norman Maclean.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Moncks Corner
    Posts
    15,556

    Default

    Darn it...
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    GVL
    Posts
    4,363

    Default

    This is a Cinco De Mayo prank..don't believe a word of it
    At least I'm housebroken.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    TR/Sumter/TR
    Posts
    10,509

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    Darn it...
    Add another to your list.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Scumter
    Posts
    21,804

    Default

    No walls will stop these guys from migrating northward.

    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Delta in a nutshell: Breeding grounds + small wetlands + big blocks of grass cover + predator removal + nesting structures + enough money to do the job= plenty of ducks to keep everyone smiling!

    "For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM...has a flavor the protected shall never know."
    -L/Cpl Edwin L. "Tim" Craft

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •