Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Mallard

Anas platyrhynchos

Notes:

Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American Black Duck, and also with species more distantly related, for example the Northern Pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile. This is quite unusual among different species, and apparently is because the Mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, during the Late Pleistocene. The distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible. Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are, of course, also fully interfertile.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

FoTony
FoTony 11 years ago

Aha yuko, I see you met mom duck. She was very cautious and didn't really know wich way to go.

YukoChartraw
YukoChartraw 11 years ago

awww cute!

Antoine Verfaille
Spotted by
Antoine Verfaille

Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Spotted on May 24, 2012
Submitted on Dec 14, 2012

Related Spottings

Anas platyrhynchos Mallard Duck Ánade real Mallard duck( female)

Nearby Spottings

Black-tailed Godwit Northern Lapwing Great Crested Grebe Eurasian Coot

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team