Mallards & hybrids in Australia's Journal

Research research has confirmed that all Mallards in Australia and New Zealand have originated from domestic stock. There has been some confusion with the origins of "wild-type" looking breeds, and there has even been suggestions that some Mallards in New Zealand may have arrived their naturally, or were wild Mallards translocated for hunting. This as now been disproven.

Professor Rohan Clarke has summarised the research:
"Basically, mallard in the established free-flying NZ population (which has expanded to colonise Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island as Australian Territories) are derived from domesticated, captive-bred game bird releases. That is, these are the domestic lineage that have been released and gone feral, rather than wild caught, wild lineage birds that have been released to establish an introduced population.
It means that all Mallard in Australia are domestic-type.”

Article:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05170-w

Article on eBird with tips on identifying hybrids from pure PBDs, with photo comparisons: https://ebird.org/australia/news/identifying-mallard-x-pacific-black-duck-hybrids

Fantastic blog post by Geoffrey Cox (iNat user: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/cobaltducks) on identifying mallard x PBD traits and differentiating pure PBDs from mallards and hybrids:

https://epistemiccuriosity.blog/2022/03/06/pacific-black-duck-or-not/

Great article on hybrid traits, featuring an appendix with pure PBD and mallard hybrid traits:

See the Wiliams article in the group files:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/pacificblackduckconservationgroup/permalink/976686566541377

Hello all,

Thank you for following this project so far and your ongoing support. I've created a Facebook page in an attempt to ramp up mallard control in Tasmania, alongside a few education initiatives we're currently working on (Signage, ID books, school talks).

If you are from Tasmania or know anybody who is interested, please join! Everybody is welcome and interstate and international support is greatly welcomed and appreciated!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/957524885124212

Cheers,

Jason