Things You Need to Know About Mallards!

In this video we discover seven interesting facts about Mallards! Mallards are the worlds most common duck and a creature recognised by people around most of the world. If you learnt something new from this video then please let me know what it was in the comments below!

I know some of our viewers dont have English as a first language so here are the mallard facts featured in the video:

1. Precocial: Like many other waterfowl and ground nesting birds mallards are precocial. This means that once the ducklings hatch, they are able to find their own food straight away.
2. Big breeders but early leavers: On average mallards will lay around 11 eggs but have been known to lay as many as 18 in a single nest. Once the ducklings have hatched, they all leave the nest and never return to it.
3. Boys vs Girls: Mallard are sexual dimorphic. This means that throughout most of the year, the male or drakes appearance is very different to the female ducks. However, once a year mallards moult their feathers and at this time the drakes lose their bright green heads and can resemble the female ducks.
4. Whats the quack?: In mallards only the female makes the familiar quacking sound. The drake’s call is a much softer and quieter noise.
5. World wide waddlers: Mallard are most widespread species of duck on the planet. They are found throughout Europe, north America and all across asia. They have also been introduced to Australia, south Africa and south America.
6. Getting cold feet? Mallards spend a lot of their time with their feet dangling in cold water or even walking or standing on ice. This cools the blood in their feet and it could be very dangerous if this cold blod was then pumped back up to their hearts. To solve this, ducks have a special web of veins and arteries in their legs called rete mirabile. This passes the cold blood coming from their feet, very close to the warm blood coming from their bodies and uses counter current heat exchange to warm the cold blood before it reaches the heart.
7. A screw loose? Unlike most birds Mallard drakes have an external penis and this isn’t your everyday garden variety penis either. Theirs is corkscrew shaped and grows to be bigger if they have a lot of competition from other males.
8. Thanks for watching this video, if you enjoyed it, you should watch one of these other videos I have made and remember to subscribe.