Tuesday,
April 13, 2010
Most
ducklings hatched - world record set by a mallard duck
HAZELBURY BRYAN, Dorset , UK -- Photographer
Brian Moore, 70, caught 21 ducklings on camera with
their mother after they hatched in the village of Hazelbury
Bryan; the mallard duck sets the new world record for the
Most
ducklings hatched.
(enlarge
photo)
Their home was a duck house on a lake
at the end of his son's garden.
Mr
Moore, of the same village, said he had photographed wildlife
all his life but never seen anything quite so impressive.
He said his eight-year-old twin grandchildren,
Megan and Jordan, were hoping the number of ducklings might
be a world record.
"I've never seen 21 ducklings before,"
he said, describing it as "a miracle".
"We thought there were about 18 eggs
in the duck house, but it was only after I took the photos
that we counted 21," he said.
"I've been photographing wildlife all my
life and I've never seen anything like it.
"There are a lots of buzzards around here,
foxes and crows, and we are hoping they don't get taken by
predators."
...Unfortunatelly, the twenty-one
"miracle" ducklings have died within a day of being hatched.
It is thought they might have been eaten.
Ducklings are particularly vulnerable,
since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only
for predatory birds but also large fish like pike, crocodilians,
and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such
as herons.
Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators,
and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by
mammals such as foxes, or large birds, such as hawks or eagles.
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Biggest
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Longest
Animal Migration - The Arctic Tern sets world record
Tuesday,
April 13, 2010
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