Freckled Duck Totally Explained

Everything about The Freckled Duck totally explained

The Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa) is a moderately large, broad-bodied duck native to southern Australia. The duck is protected by law. Dark in colour with fine off-white speckles all over, it's most easily identified by its large head with a peaked (as opposed to rounded) crown.
   This species was formerly allied with the dabbling ducks, but is now placed in a monotypic subfamily Stictonettinae. It appears to be part of an Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl, before true ducks evolved (Sraml et al. 1996).
   The Freckled Duck feeds by dabbling in shallow water, often by wading near the edge. It prefers large, well-vegetated swamps, but moves to open water after breeding or in dry periods.
   In flight, it has a distinctive rapid wing beat and holds its head low, making it look rather hunchbacked. It doesn't turn rapidly and lands clumsily.
   In dry years, the ephemeral wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin and Lake Eyre disappear and Freckled Ducks migrate to permanent water in coastal regions. This concentration in populated areas, coupled with their habit of circling repeatedly at low altitude when disturbed (even when being shot at) makes them particularly vulnerable to hunting.
   Although protected by law in all states, the reality is that hunters continue to shoot Freckled Duck. During the 1979-83 drought, for example, the population was reduced by about 5%. There have been steps taken to require shooters to pass a waterfowl identification test in Victoria (the state where, because of the nature of the wetlands, Freckled Duck are most vulnerable) and to make pre-season surveys of Freckled Duck numbers in wetlands so as to temporarily close areas to shooting, but it's too early to know how effective these changes will be.
   In the longer-term, the key survival issue for Freckled Duck is likely to be habitat rather than hunting. Vast areas of former wetlands in the interior have been drained and cleared for agriculture, the remaining areas are threatened by salinity, by the diversion of water to supply cities and farms, and by long-term climate change: as rains come less often and higher average temperatures increase evaporation, Australia's inland wetlands become less able to sustain life.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Freckled Duck'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://freckled_duck.totallyexplained.com">Freckled Duck Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.