Muscovy Ducks

I have always been fond of these large tree perching ducks, but I had now idea that they originated on the American continent, and are in fact native to Central and South America. Once the domestic Muscovy Duck reached the Phillipines and Indonesia it readily became the most important poultry for many European settlements for the qualities of the meat and tolerance of heat and wet.
At some point, Europeans and/or their Asian neighbors either indavertently or purposely hybridized the now critically endangered White Winged Wood Duck with their domestic Muscovy Ducks. Fertile male offspring were bred back into the domestic Muscovy duck gene pool in high enough numbers to introduce a number of new traits into the populations of founders European Shores. Significant feral populations now exist in Florida, normally inhabitating forested swamps, lakes and streams.
No one is quite sure how the ducks came to be known as Muscovies. One theory says they got their name from The Muscovy Company that traded them. Others believe the word Muscovy came from the name Muisca, a native tribe that lived in today's Colombia and kept the ducks as domestic animals.