Tufted duck

Facts

IUCN LEAST CONCERN (LC)

Facts about this animal

The tufted duck is a large diving duck with a body-weight of 1.1 kg in males and slightly less in females.

Nest sites are variable and may be located in gull or tern colonies. 6 to 14 greenish-grey eggs are laid, which are incubated by the female alone for 23-25 days.

During winter, tufted ducks congregate to huge flocks.

The food of the tufted duck consists mainly of (bivalve) molluscs, aquatic insects and plant material.

Did you know?
that the tufted duck, as well as other diving duck species, could greatly expand its range due to the unintended introduction of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) to European and North American waters? Zebra mussels are small clam shells, which attach to any solid object with tufts of fiber called "byssal threads." They are native to the Caspian Sea region of Asia, and were introduced into other regions via transoceanic ships that discharged ballast water, and within these regions by all kind of boats. A single zebra mussel female can produce in excess of 30,000 eggs, and the generations mature rapidly, making it difficult to control them. A body of water may have no detectable zebra mussels one year, and have its bottom covered with them the next. Colonies can have from 70,000 to 700,000 zebra mussels per square metre.

Factsheet
Class	AVES
Order	ANSERIFORMES
Suborder	ANSERES
Family	ANATIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Aythya fuligula
Name (English)	Tufted duck
Name (French)	Fuligule morillon
Name (German)	Reiherente
Name (Spanish)	Porrón moñudo
Local names	Czech: Polák chocholacka Dutch: Kuifeend Estonian: Tuttvart Finnish: Tukkasotka Greek: Mauroképhali Hungarian: Kontyos réce Italian: Moretta Polish: Czernika Portuguese: Zarro-negrinha Romansh: Anda mora Swedish: Vigg
CITES Status	Not listed
CMS Status	Appendix II (as Anatidae spp.) Included in AEWA

Photo Copyright by
Quirin Herzog

Distribution

Distribution
Range	Breeds in a wide range of the palearctic. Winters in the southern breeding range, Africa and southern Asia. Africa: Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda Asia and Oceania: Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, PDR, Korea, Dem.Lao PDR, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen Europe: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania Luxemburg, Macedonia Yug. Rep., Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Fed.Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom North America: Canada, United States Vagrants may be encountered in a series of other countries and territories from Greenland to the Marshall Islands.
Habitat	Freshwater wetlands including lakes, dams, quiet parts of rivers and ponds.
Wild population	The global population is estimated to be 2,700,000 to 4,100,000 individuals by Wetlands International (2002).
Zoo population	476 reported to ISIS (2006).

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 18 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

Find this animal on ZooLex

Photo Copyright by
Andreas Trepte

Why do zoos keep this animal