{"id":2432,"date":"2024-05-22T05:04:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T05:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2024-05-22T05:04:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T05:04:07","slug":"dna-testing-confirms-first-ever-documented-leucistic-black-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=2432","title":{"rendered":"DNA Testing Confirms First Ever Documented Leucistic Black Duck"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Mike Wec was having a tough morning.<\/p>\n

The Massachusetts marsh he was hunting on Dec. 15 had frozen over despite the wind, and breaking 75 yards of ice just so he could paddle to his spot earned him sweat-soaked layers and a new leak in his waders. Wec<\/a> had just enough time to throw out his decoys \u2014 mallards to the right, black ducks on the left \u2014 and get settled.<\/p>\n

At legal light, the 37-year-old noticed a few ducks in the distance and gave a couple quacks. Three birds turned his way, then split at his greeting call, with a pair of mallards breaking right and the third committing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like a hen mallard or a hen black duck, and her belly was tannish,\u201d says Wec, who usually expects a mix of mallards, black ducks, and a few geese that time of year. \u201cShe cupped her wings and came into the black duck decoys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Migrating Mallard Clocked at 103 MPH, Breaking Recent Speed Record<\/a><\/p>\n

He shot once and dropped the duck on the water. Confident it wasn\u2019t going anywhere, he waited and killed the next single that came in, a drake black duck. Then he got into his kayak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI paddled about 20 yards past the first duck and glanced at it and I\u2019m like \u2018Wow that is a light colored duck.\u2019 It flew like a mallard and looked like a mallard or a black duck, so I had a feeling maybe it was a farm-duck mixed mallard. I picked up the black duck and came back and picked up the [white] duck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leucistic black duck hen beside a nice drake black duck. Wec says the size comparison between the two birds as it appears here is true to life. Photo courtesy of Mike Wec <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wec went on to shoot a greenhead and a woodie \u2014 another surprise given the lateness of the season. Finally, he shot a banded greenhead and called it a morning, just one bird short of his limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019m sitting there,\u201d says Wec, \u201cI\u2019m also thinking, \u2018What do I have here and I am I legal?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wec put the banded drake and what he thought of as the \u201cblond mallard\u201d on the passenger seat and called his wife, Ashley Wec.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had something special and I knew I had to wrap it and put it in the freezer,\u201d says Wec. \u201cI\u2018m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know what this is, and I\u2019ve been told to mount so many birds before and I haven\u2019t. This is the bird I\u2019m gonna mount.\u2019 So she\u2019s like, \u2018Well can\u2019t they DNA test it?\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018I doubt it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mike
The ducks that kicked off and concluded his hunt: a leucistic black duck and a banded greenhead. Photo courtesy of Mike Wec <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Undeterred, Ashley performed a quick Google search and turned up the University of Texas at El Paso\u2019s duckDNA<\/a> project, a new pilot program for 2023 designed to collect genetic data on wild waterfowl. The program is particularly interested in the westward spread of game-farm mallard genes in wild duck populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, Wec reached out. And although duckDNA applications were closed at the time, the photos of the blond duck were intriguing enough to researchers that they sent his taxidermist a vial for collecting a tissue sample (in this case, from the tip of the duck\u2019s tongue).<\/p>\n

Now, about five months later, Wec has received the results of the DNA test. The white bird was a hen, and 100 percent American black duck. In other words, there was no trace of game-farm mallard or even lineage from old-world ducks introduced from Europe years ago. According to the program and its partner, Ducks Unlimited, this is the first verified instance of a leucistic, fully wild American black duck.<\/p>\n

\"Five
A good comparison of the white black duck beside two greenheads, a drake black duck, and a hen woodie. Photo courtesy of Mike Wec <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is a huge showcase of what duckDNA provides to hunters and scientists in cooperation at a level we\u2019ve never had before,\u201d Dr. Phil Lavretsky, who leads duckDNA, told DU in a statement<\/a>. \u201cNo more assumptions and biases, there is no hiding DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leucism is an inherited trait that results in loss of pigmentation. In birds this can range from just a few white feathers to all-white plumage, according to DU. Leucistic ducks retain normal eye color and vision (unlike albino birds). Previously hunters and even researchers have only speculated that ducks with the appearance and coloration of Wec\u2019s white duck were leucistic mallards or wild-domestic hybrids.<\/p>\n

\"The
A close up of the duck\u2019s plumage. Photo courtesy of Mike Wec <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
A close up of the head. Photo courtesy of Mike Wec <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In its first season, duckDNA tested 721 genetic samples from ducks submitted by 309 hunters in 47 states. Analysis of those samples revealed 19 different hybrid combinations, including the following hybrids:<\/p>\n