If it walks like a duck ...

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

A gorgeous duck with flashes of auburn, blue and green is causing

quite a stir in Central Park. With his little red bill, orange

“side-whiskers,” bold stripes of black and white in various places

and a broad orange feather sticking up like a sail out of each wing,

he’s quite a sight. We say “his” instead of “its” because the duck is

most decidedly male.

He’s been drawing a steady crowd of admirers. Most onlookers don’t

know what kind of duck he is. Some have even questioned whether or

not such a flashy bird is even a duck, perhaps because his bill is so

small. Maybe they can’t see his webbed feet because his legs are so

short. His squat little body nearly hides the feet, but rest assured,

they’re webbed.

You know what they say. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a

duck, it’s probably a duck. And indeed he is. This new visitor to our

park is a Mandarin duck, an Asian species that is common in zoos.

He’s not an escapee from Sea World or the San Diego Wild Animal Park

because he’s not wearing a leg band and all of their birds are

banded. He may have escaped from a private collection or been

released deliberately in the park. That’s more likely than the other

possibility -- that he’s just way off course and flew across the

Pacific Ocean.

Our exotic visitor looks nothing at all like the mallards that

make up the bulk of the park duck population. He is small, with a

decidedly unduck-like bill. However, he is closely related to the

wood duck, a native North American duck that is in the same genus as

the Mandarin. In fact, the female Mandarin duck and the female wood

duck are very similar in size and appearance and both have a thin

white stripe through the eye. If there were any wood ducks nearby,

the male Mandarin would probably try to mate with one them.

There aren’t any wood ducks in Central Park, however, so the

off-course Mandarin is doing the best he can. He has selected a

female mallard as his mate and is actively courting her with calls,

strutting and feather displays. The mallard is unimpressed. She

already has a boyfriend, a duck of her own species. This hasn’t

discouraged the Mandarin duck. He follows her everywhere, attempting

to drive off the male mallard suitor. He’s unlikely to succeed.

In ducks, it is the female who makes mate selection. Males will

attempt to court a number of females. Since female ducks of many

species look very much alike, sometimes males will choose the wrong

species to court. The males, however, look quite different from one

species to the other. The female has no trouble figuring out which

species is hers, and usually ignores males of other species. We say

usually because occasional hybrids do occur among mallards and

closely related species like black ducks, Mexican ducks, widgeons,

pintails, shovelers, teal -- essentially most dabbling ducks. These

ducks are all in the same genus and haven’t diverged enough

evolutionarily to prevent hybridization. But Mandarins are too

dissimilar and we don’t expect any hybridization to occur between

these members of Central Park’s latest odd couple. The Mandarin isn’t

the first exotic visitor to Central Park and certainly won’t be the

last. About three or four years ago, someone released three guinea

fowl near the Park Bench Cafe. A coyote or some other predator

quickly picked off two of them, but the third lives on. It spends its

time with the ducks by the perennial pond near the Park Bench, living

on handouts. It must be wise to the ways of the wild to survive the

coyotes that prowl the park at night. And prowl they do.

We saw evidence of coyotes this Saturday during the restoration

work party in the Shipley Nature Center. On Friday, there had been

fresh raccoon scat on the trail at the nature center. On Saturday,

the trail held a bit of fur and the remnants of a young raccoon face.

And thus, we see the cycle of life continue in the wilds that we

surround as we live our own lives in the midst of a sprawling

megalopolis of 8-million people. Creatures come and creatures go.

Some come from nearby and some come from far way. Some come to eat,

some are eaten instead. The Mandarin duck may move on, or it may live

out its full life in Central Park, or it may quickly fall prey to a

predator. See it while you can.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].