The Guardian newspaper of September 8th 2018 reported the
hilarious, very odd but apparently true story of the only living male mallard
duck (or so it appeared from the photo in the paper`s print edition) of the same
type that lives in New Zealand,the nearest large group of islands, but by "near"
NZ is still 2064 miles from Niue so we have a valid mystery here.An argument was
put forth that it was a released pet or escaped pet from a yacht that had
arrived and left from NZ, but frankly,if I ever go on a long distance yacht trip
I`d rather take something more lively and better company than a duck. Now I am
not being duck-ist or duck-phobic here, a friend and I regularly feed mallards
at a big pond in Macclesfield and all they ever do is eat,quack and fight each
other!
If anyone has the time and money to buy the books mentioned on this
very useful website then perhaps the mystery of this duck could be
resolved.
I have e-mailed the author of the above web site, Grrlscientist and let`s
see what transpires.
The story itself says was headlined `Trevor the lonely duck gets tiny
island of Niue in a flap.`According to Guardian online:
"The remote Pacific atoll of Niue, a three and a half
hour flight from Auckland, has a population of 1,600 humans and, as of early
this year, one duck. "The arrival of the
lone bird has surprised and delighted locals. He has been christened Trevor,
after the Speaker of the House of Representatives in New Zealand, Trevor
Mallard. Trevor was being fed by locals and : "People
are concerned because we haven’t had a lot of rain so his puddle is drying up,”
said Bollen. “There’s a collective effort among the public at large to keep the
duck in water. People are just going down with containers to fill up his
puddle." The duck seems to have become something of a local celebrity.
Apparently Niue has no wildlife at all on land so the arrival or teleportation a
la Fort of a duck is something of a sensation .Apparently according to a comment
on the Guardian`s online version Trevor was being harassed by a
rooster.
I
e-mailed Haden Talagi the Minister for the Environment, on Niue but my email
came back with a "unknown contact/not recognised" message.
As
of 6.15pm UK time Sept 13th when I wrote this blog , The Guardian`s online
version of this story had 250 comments,see here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/07/trevor-the-lonely-duck-gets-tiny-island-of-niue-in-a-flap#comments.Most
of the comments are facetious and amusing. Though this post by Lawrie Griffith
is an exception:
"The NZ Herald report suggests that claims that Trevor the Duck is a
mallard species is a 'fib' presumably because of the word association with
Trevor the Speaker.
The
Wikipedia entry for List of birds of Niue lists twenty nine species. None of
which are ducks.
It does however mention unconfirmed reports of Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa).
A google search for 'pacific mallard' resulted in entries for a type of steam locomotive, which is unhelpful.New Zealand Birds Online lists images of the NZ Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, in breeding plumage, which resemble quite closely media images of Trevor the Duck.
This breeding plumage also suggests that Trevor is not Trevor the Duck at all. But is in fact Trevor the Drake..."
Also
the point was made that mallards are an invasive species in New
Zealand.
I
have to admit the words "fake news" clearly flashed in neon in my mind but no,
it`s an apparently a true story , not qwackers, and there is a photo of poor
Trevor in his pond(the only pond on Niue apparently) in the
paper.
Until
next time , adieu.
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