Sledo: a description of the breed of ducks and characteristics, lifestyle and the Red Book

Sheldocks are classified as a duck family, scientists consider them to be a species between ordinary ducks and geese. In Russia, this bird is called an earthen or hillock duck, as well as atayka, horhal. Consider a description of the species, where it lives, what it eats, what lifestyle it leads, how it reproduces and raises offspring. Features of domesticated shelducks, how to keep and care for them.

Description of the bird

Due to the fact that shelducks occupy a kind of middle position between real ducks and geese, they have characteristics inherent in both. In size, they are larger than wild ducks, but smaller than geese: the weight of a drake is 0.9-1.6 kg, ducks - 0.6-1.3 kg.Wings with a wide span - 1.1-1.3 m. The body is large, proportionately folded, the legs are high, the tail is of medium length. The beak is deep red, the drakes have a well-defined cone, by which they can be distinguished from females.

Atayka has a characteristic plumage color: on the head it is black with greenery, the neck is also black, but with a white base and goiter. White back and sides. A wide reddish-brown stripe runs along the shoulders, sides and belly. Black feathers are interspersed on her stomach. The flight feathers of the wings of shelducks are black, the undertail is bright red, the ends of the tail feathers are black. The eyes of the shelduck are red-brown, the paws and beak are red. Sheds molt 2 times a year: in summer and autumn. Juveniles are colored like females, which have the same coloration as males, but its shade is more modest.

Ducks fly the same way as geese: slowly, rarely flapping their wide wings. They walk and run fast.

Sheldock habitat

Ducks form 2 different populations in the territories where they live. The living conditions in them are different: in one bird nests are arranged on the sea coasts, in the other they live on open s alt lakes and estuaries (dry regions of Central Asia).

In Russia, shelducks settled on the islands of the White Sea, in Western and Eastern Siberia. Ducks also live in the southern steppes and forest-steppes, in the Northern Black Sea region, Transbaikalia. In addition to Russian territory, they are found in the B altic countries, Britain, Ukraine, Greece, and Moldova. Shelds build nests on sandy hills, scree, coastal thickets.

Breed nutrition

Sheldock duck, or galgaz, prefers to settle in reservoirs with s alt water. The diet consists of plant foods and animals that live there. The basis of the diet is small mollusks, snails, crustaceans, small fish and fish caviar. Aquatic insects, their larvae and pupae. They eat shelducks and terrestrial insects when they come ashore, such as beetles, locusts, earthworms.From plant foods, they eat algae, sometimes they eat grass and seeds.

Ducks collect aquatic life from the surface of the water, adults do not dive, although young animals retain this ability. Going to the seashore, they filter the silt left after low tide.

Lifestyle and social behavior

The shelduck can be a settled, migratory or partly migratory bird. Migratory ducks winter in the Eurasian subtropics, in the Black Sea region, in the countries of the Mediterranean Sea. European shelducks do not migrate. After the end of nesting, ducks fly to large reservoirs, gathering in flocks of several thousand. They spend a month there during which they are unable to fly.

When the molt ends, some ducks fly back to their nests, some move from cold areas to warm areas for wintering.

Shelds often make characteristic sounds that differ between drakes and females.In the spring, when the males rush after the females, they let out a whistle in high tones. For drakes, another cry is characteristic - a deaf "ha-ha", which is repeated several times. Females emit a dull quack, repeatedly repeated, and at high speed. When frightened, the cry "ha-ha" is pronounced loudly and resoundingly.

Reproduction and parenting

Sheldock ducks can give birth at 2 years of age, drakes mate later - at 4-5 years. Courtship begins in March or April, 2 weeks after arrival. Up to 10 drakes can take care of 1 female shelduck at once.

Sheldock nests are built in the burrows of foxes, rabbits, marmots, badgers. In a large hole, several ducks can hatch eggs. If there are no holes, they can occupy crevices, abandoned nests, hollows, equip nests in pipes, buildings, tree roots, haystacks.

The shelduck can hatch 8-16 eggs. Their shells are creamy or creamy white. Hatching lasts 27-31 days. The drake, while the duck sits, guards the hole. As soon as the ducklings hatch, they go with their parents to the reservoir. Each duckling is immediately able to move quickly, swim and find its own food on its own. By the age of 2 months, they become completely independent. Pegankas live, by bird standards, for a long time - up to 15 years.

Domestication of the breed

Ducks are not shy, they are not afraid of people. You can try to train them. They can live in poultry houses with other birds, they can even be bred. It is necessary to feed shelducks with a balanced feed from grains of different types, vegetables, fruits, young grass, duckweed. Wild ducks can live in an ordinary poultry house with a paddock and a bath. In general, their content is not particularly different from the content of domestic ducks.

Red Book

In Russia, the shelduck is listed in the Red Book of the Republics of Khakassia and Tuva. The species has the status of rare on the periphery of the nesting area. No measures are taken to protect or spread ducks.

The shelduck is an interesting species of ducks that resemble geese in appearance and habits. They can be found in s alt water bodies, they can be distinguished from other inhabitants by their characteristic white-black-red color, red beak with a bump. They are hunted for their meat, which, like all game, is tougher than domestic ducks and has a peculiar smell.

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