Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Duck à l'Estrange

In an effort to encourage native biodiversity, Cape Town South Africa has "replaced" non-native birds at two local dams with indigenous duck species. As reported by Reuters, yellow-billed ducks were bred and released in lieu of the mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and other alien birds species living there. No details are provided on what exactly "replaced" means but it can't be good. In case you're tending towards feeling sympathetic for the mallards, this press release paints them as aggressive, gang-raping thugs, messing with the normal breeding cycles of native South African ducks and producing hybrid offspring that have proved in some cases to be fertile.

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