IT'S FLOWER FRIDAY
It's Flower Friday and, once again, there's no flowers actively growing around here. So ducks it is.
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This is the Laysan Teal (Anas laysanensis), a critically endangered duck native to Laysan Is., Hawaii...one of the remote northern islands. This one lives in the zoo in Milwaukee.
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Courtesy of Wiki: Named by Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1892, the Laysan duck is named after Laysan island, one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is a member of the mallard clade of dabbling ducks, and is a highly unusual species, both behaviorally and genetically. Recent evidence suggests they originated from an east Asian, southern hemisphere ancestor of mallards, not from stray migratory mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) as had been reported in the past.
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As noted above this "teal" is actually more related to larger ducks in the Genus Anas which included the mallard, perhaps the most recognizable duck in the world. There's an estimated 500 of them remaining in the world. Again, from Wiki: In an effort to ensure the long-term future of this duck, 42 birds were translocated to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in 2002. These thrived in their new surroundings, and another group were later relocated to Kure Atoll.
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Best viewed in Large.
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