muscovies vs mallards

Didn't intend to create new thread and can't find how to remove it.

"Scientists have been debating the idea of reclassifying them. Turns out they are waterfowl but not necessarily ducks. "

Hi Dale, unlike all other domestic ducks, muscovies are not derived from mallards. But that doesn't mean they are not ducks, many waterfowl are ducks but are not mallards. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducks

I would not be a bit surprised to find out that some taxonomist or other was moving muscovies around within the duck group. Last I heard, they were most closely related to the north american wood duck, but taxonomists make their living by investigating the genetic relationships between species and renaming them to better reflect those relationships. However, I would be absolutely flummoxed to find out that muscovies had been moved to say, the heron group.

Well it looks like it's impossible to get rid of unwanted threads. The machine will allow me to edit this post but not the initial one and it won't let me remove a post altogether. So back to the ducks.

It appears that Moscovie ducks are a separate species from most domestic duck's but they are still ducks. The fact that they have nonviable offspring when bred with others does not change this. There are many different species of antelope which cannot interbreed. They are still antelope. I'm sorry I brought this up . It will now be interesting to see how many people will chime in on a matter which has been resolved. Burra commented before I did some research and edited this.

Sometimes I post something and it's deleted over minor details. This time I had no intention of creating a thread and I can't make it go away. If my computer skills weren't close to nonexistent I have some strong opinions regarding this

Muscovies, as far as I've been able to tell, are not the same species as ducks.

They can breed with ducks, but the hybrids are sterile. Some of the females can lay eggs, I think if the Muscovy is the mother, but those eggs don't hatch. Around here the 'mule' ducks are very common as they grow quickly, and they are often called 'French Ducks' as they are produced in great numbers for the French Fois Gras industry and the surlpus seem to end up in the Portuguese markets. Their livers apparently have the same tendency to grow hideously in response to force-feeding as a goose's liver does, and they take up less space in the feeding crates.

The ones I've bought in the past have been 'French' ducks, with a Muscovy dad and a 'normal' duck for a mum, and we've never even had one egg from them.

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