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49-452: In 1959, University of Oregon director of public service Willard Thompson selected art student Warren Spady to create a trophy depicting a platypus to be presented to the winner of the upcoming rivalry game, then known as the Civil War. A platypus was chosen as the subject because with its duck -like bill and beaver -like tail, it resembles a combination of each school's mascot. Spady had only

98-483: A form taxon ; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species), since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds , and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes , gallinules and coots . The word duck comes from Old English dūce 'diver',

147-451: A subfamily of the family Anatidae ( swans , geese and ducks ). Its surviving members are the dabbling ducks , which feed mainly at the surface rather than by diving . The other members of the Anatinae are the extinct moa-nalo , a young but highly apomorphic lineage derived from the dabbling ducks. There has been much debate about the systematical status and which ducks belong to

196-532: A column lamenting the fact that unlike other college rivalry games , the Oregon–Oregon State rivalry had no trophy. Spady contacted Canzano and informed him of the existence of the Platypus Trophy, and a follow-up Canzano column ignited a search for the missing trophy. Led by Dan Williams, a UO administrator who had been the student body president who handed the trophy over to his OSU counterpart in 1961,

245-569: A derivative of the verb * dūcan 'to duck, bend down low as if to get under something, or dive', because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending; compare with Dutch duiken and German tauchen 'to dive'. This word replaced Old English ened / ænid 'duck', possibly to avoid confusion with other words, such as ende 'end' with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for duck , for example, Dutch eend , German Ente and Norwegian and . The word ened / ænid

294-450: A duck squatting on land cannot react to fly or move quickly, "a sitting duck" has come to mean "an easy target". These ducks may be contaminated by pollutants such as PCBs . Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, and feathers (particularly their down ). Approximately 3 billion ducks are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. Almost all

343-547: A few eggs hatch after the mother has abandoned the nest and led her ducklings to water. Female mallard ducks (as well as several other species in the genus Anas , such as the American and Pacific black ducks , spot-billed duck , northern pintail and common teal ) make the classic "quack" sound while males make a similar but raspier sound that is sometimes written as "breeeeze", but, despite widespread misconceptions, most species of duck do not "quack". In general, ducks make

392-425: A month before the game to complete the trophy, which is carved from maple and measures 2 feet (0.61 m) wide and 18 inches (46 cm) tall. He submitted it unfinished, having not quite completed sculpting the feet. Oregon was heavily favored in the 1959 game, but Oregon State won 15-7 and took home the trophy, which they displayed in a case at Gill Coliseum . During that year, Oregon students apparently stole

441-478: A range of calls , including whistles, cooing, yodels and grunts. For example, the scaup – which are diving ducks – make a noise like "scaup" (hence their name). Calls may be loud displaying calls or quieter contact calls. A common urban legend claims that duck quacks do not echo; however, this has been proven to be false. This myth was first debunked by the Acoustics Research Centre at

490-409: A squirming frog. To avoid injury when digging into sediment it has no cere , but the nostrils come out through hard horn. The Guardian published an article advising that ducks should not be fed with bread because it damages the health of the ducks and pollutes waterways. Ducks generally only have one partner at a time , although the partnership usually only lasts one year. Larger species and

539-516: A tribe (Dendrocygnini) in the subfamily Anatinae or the subfamily Anserinae, or to their own subfamily (Dendrocygninae) or family (Dendrocyganidae). The freckled duck of Australia is either the sole member of the tribe Stictonettini in the subfamily Anserinae, or in its own family, the Stictonettinae. The shelducks make up the tribe Tadornini in the family Anserinae in some classifications, and their own subfamily, Tadorninae, in others, while

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588-436: A trophy for the schools' water polo rivalry, and was affixed with a brass plaque commemorating four consecutive Oregon water polo victories from 1964 to 1968. Spady was unable to convince anyone to reacquire the trophy for use in the football game, and in 2000, the pool and its trophy cases were demolished as part of a renovation project. In 2004, with the trophy long forgotten, Oregonian sportswriter John Canzano wrote

637-456: A variety of subfamilies and 'tribes'. The number and composition of these subfamilies and tribes is the cause of considerable disagreement among taxonomists. Some base their decisions on morphological characteristics , others on shared behaviours or genetic studies. The number of suggested subfamilies containing ducks ranges from two to five. The significant level of hybridisation that occurs among wild ducks complicates efforts to tease apart

686-402: Is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism , although there are exceptions such as the paradise shelduck of New Zealand , which is both strikingly sexually dimorphic and in which the female's plumage is brighter than that of the male. The plumage of juvenile birds generally resembles that of

735-403: Is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen. All ducks belong to the biological order Anseriformes , a group that contains the ducks, geese and swans, as well as the screamers , and the magpie goose . All except the screamers belong to the biological family Anatidae . Within the family, ducks are split into

784-404: Is the way in which they take flight when spooked or are on the move. Puddle ducks spring straight up from the water, but diving ducks need to gain momentum to take off, so they must run across the water a short distance to gain flight. Traditionally, most ducks were assigned to either the shelducks , the perching ducks , and the dabbling and diving ducks ; the latter two were presumed to make up

833-517: The Chatham duck , a species with reduced flying capabilities which went extinct shortly after its island was colonised by Polynesian settlers. It is probable that duck eggs were gathered by Neolithic hunter-gathers as well, though hard evidence of this is uncommon. In many areas, wild ducks (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or by being trapped using duck decoys . Because an idle floating duck or

882-716: The Galápagos Islands , where they are often vagrants and less often residents . A handful are endemic to such far-flung islands. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Ducks eat food sources such as grasses , aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small molluscs . Dabbling ducks feed on

931-678: The Hawaiian Islands and were derived from dabbling ducks, possibly even from a close ancestor of the mallard : Subfossil remains of a small, flightless dabbling duck have been recovered on Rota in the Mariana Islands . These cannot be assigned to a known genus, but probably are closest to Anas . A most bizarre duck-like bird, Talpanas lippa has been found on the Hawaiian island of Kauai . Because of its unique apomorphies (it seems to have had small eyes high and far back on its head),

980-561: The University of Salford in 2003 as part of the British Association 's Festival of Science. It was also debunked in one of the earlier episodes of the popular Discovery Channel television show MythBusters . Ducks have many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for predatory birds but also for large fish like pike , crocodilians , predatory testudines such as

1029-486: The alligator snapping turtle , and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons . Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by mammals, such as foxes , or large birds, such as hawks or owls . Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators including big fish such as the North American muskie and

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1078-418: The steamer ducks are either placed in the family Anserinae in the tribe Tachyerini or lumped with the shelducks in the tribe Tadorini. The perching ducks make up in the tribe Cairinini in the subfamily Anserinae in some classifications, while that tribe is eliminated in other classifications and its members assigned to the tribe Anatini. The torrent duck is generally included in the subfamily Anserinae in

1127-468: The 2007 game, the trophy was presented to the winning school's alumni association . Oregon State was the first recipient of the restored trophy after defeating Oregon 38-31 in overtime. It was presented prior to a basketball game in March 2008. When Oregon won the next year, the trophy was not exchanged (as of January 21, 2009). According to a 2012 KVAL story, the tradition soon languished yet again. According to

1176-494: The Anatinae. However, the perching ducks turned out to be a paraphyletic assemblage of various tropical waterfowl that happened to evolve the ability to perch well in their forested habitat . Several of these, such as the Brazilian teal , were subsequently assigned to the Anatinae. As for the diving ducks , mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data indicates that they are fairly distant from

1225-479: The Anatinae. Some taxonomic authorities only include the dabbling ducks and their close relatives, the extinct moa-nalos. Alternatively, the Anatinae are considered to include most " ducks ", and the dabbling ducks form a tribe Anatini within these. The classification as presented here more appropriately reflects the remaining uncertainty about the interrelationships of the major lineages of Anatidae (waterfowl). The dabbling duck group, of worldwide distribution,

1274-551: The European pike . In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the peregrine falcon , which uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. Humans have hunted ducks since prehistoric times. Excavations of middens in California dating to 7800 – 6400 BP have turned up bones of ducks, including at least one now-extinct flightless species. Ducks were captured in "significant numbers" by Holocene inhabitants of

1323-498: The University of Oregon Alumni Association, however, it has continued to be awarded annually. News coverage has listed it among the "best traveling rivalry trophies." Duck See text Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae . Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese , which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are

1372-535: The coat of arms of Lubāna ( Latvia ) and the coat of arms of Föglö ( Åland ). In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire , UK , finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that of all animals, ducks attract the most humor and silliness; he said, "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages, possibly because ducks are seen as silly in their looks or behavior. Of

1421-665: The dabbling ducks. The morphological similarities are due to convergent evolution . In addition, the genus Anas , as traditionally defined, is not monophyletic ; several South American species belong to a distinct clade which would include the Tachyeres steamer-ducks. Other species, such as the Baikal teal , should also be considered distinct. The following genera are (with one exception) unequivocal dabbling ducks : The three known genera and four known species of moa-nalos all became extinct around AD 1000. They formerly occurred on

1470-469: The diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. A few specialized species such as the mergansers are adapted to catch and swallow large fish. The others have the characteristic wide flat bill adapted to dredging -type jobs such as pulling up waterweed, pulling worms and small molluscs out of mud, searching for insect larvae, and bulk jobs such as dredging out, holding, turning head first, and swallowing

1519-612: The duck being described as a fierce fighter. This led to the duck becoming the nickname and mascot for the eventual National Hockey League professional team of the Anaheim Ducks , who were founded with the name the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The duck is also the nickname of the University of Oregon sports teams as well as the Long Island Ducks minor league baseball team. Dabbling duck See text The Anatinae are

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1568-462: The female. Female ducks have evolved to have a corkscrew shaped vagina to prevent rape. Ducks have a cosmopolitan distribution , and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Several species manage to live on subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the Auckland Islands . Ducks have reached a number of isolated oceanic islands, including the Hawaiian Islands , Micronesia and

1617-402: The geese and swans. The body shape of diving ducks varies somewhat from this in being more rounded. The bill is usually broad and contains serrated pectens , which are particularly well defined in the filter-feeding species. In the case of some fishing species the bill is long and strongly serrated. The scaled legs are strong and well developed, and generally set far back on the body, more so in

1666-514: The highly aquatic species. The wings are very strong and are generally short and pointed, and the flight of ducks requires fast continuous strokes, requiring in turn strong wing muscles. Three species of steamer duck are almost flightless, however. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting ; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration . The drakes of northern species often have extravagant plumage , but that

1715-612: The lower Ohio River valley, suggesting they took advantage of the seasonal bounty provided by migrating waterfowl. Neolithic hunters in locations as far apart as the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Egypt, Switzerland, and China relied on ducks as a source of protein for some or all of the year. Archeological evidence shows that Māori people in New Zealand hunted the flightless Finsch's duck , possibly to extinction, though rat predation may also have contributed to its fate. A similar end awaited

1764-457: The many ducks in fiction , many are cartoon characters, such as Walt Disney 's Donald Duck , and Warner Bros. ' Daffy Duck . Howard the Duck started as a comic book character in 1973 and was made into a movie in 1986. The 1992 Disney film The Mighty Ducks , starring Emilio Estevez , chose the duck as the mascot for the fictional youth hockey team who are protagonists of the movie, based on

1813-406: The monotypic tribe Merganettini, but is sometimes included in the tribe Tadornini. The pink-eared duck is sometimes included as a true duck either in the tribe Anatini or the tribe Malacorhynchini, and other times is included with the shelducks in the tribe Tadornini. The overall body plan of ducks is elongated and broad, and they are also relatively long-necked, albeit not as long-necked as

1862-709: The more sedentary species (like fast-river specialists) tend to have pair-bonds that last numerous years. Most duck species breed once a year, choosing to do so in favourable conditions ( spring /summer or wet seasons). Ducks also tend to make a nest before breeding, and, after hatching, lead their ducklings to water. Mother ducks are very caring and protective of their young, but may abandon some of their ducklings if they are physically stuck in an area they cannot get out of (such as nesting in an enclosed courtyard ) or are not prospering due to genetic defects or sickness brought about by hypothermia, starvation, or disease. Ducklings can also be orphaned by inconsistent late hatching where

1911-526: The placement of this anatid is likewise unresolved; only dabbling ducks and true geese are with certainty known to have colonized the Hawaiian archipelago . Another bizarre insular anatine was Bambolinetta from the Late Miocene of Tuscana , then part of the Tuscano-Sardinian insular landmass. Flightless or at least a poor flyer, it instead shows adaptations for wing-propelled diving, occupying

1960-472: The relationships between various species. In most modern classifications, the so-called 'true ducks' belong to the subfamily Anatinae, which is further split into a varying number of tribes. The largest of these, the Anatini, contains the 'dabbling' or 'river' ducks – named for their method of feeding primarily at the surface of fresh water. The 'diving ducks', also named for their primary feeding method, make up

2009-431: The surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the edge of the bill, there is a comb-like structure called a pecten . This strains the water squirting from the side of the bill and traps any food. The pecten is also used to preen feathers and to hold slippery food items. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily,

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2058-461: The tribe Aythyini. The 'sea ducks' of the tribe Mergini are diving ducks which specialise on fish and shellfish and spend a majority of their lives in saltwater. The tribe Oxyurini contains the 'stifftails', diving ducks notable for their small size and stiff, upright tails. A number of other species called ducks are not considered to be 'true ducks', and are typically placed in other subfamilies or tribes. The whistling ducks are assigned either to

2107-509: The trophy was rediscovered in 2005 in a closet at the University of Oregon's McArthur Court . After obtaining Spady's signature on the work, Williams returned the trophy to the Oregon Alumni Association so it could resume its role as a game trophy. However, despite initial interest from the schools' athletic directors to start awarding the trophy again, after viewing the abstract piece, they declined to do so. Instead, beginning with

2156-502: The trophy, and kept it after the 1960 game ended in a 14-14 tie. In 1961, Oregon State won 6-2 and Oregon returned the trophy to Oregon State immediately following the game. Following the 1961 game, the trophy was stolen several more times and was eventually forgotten as the football game's trophy. In 1986, artist Spady, now an art teacher in Eugene , spotted the trophy in a case at Oregon's Leighton Pool. It had apparently been reappropriated as

2205-563: The varieties of domestic ducks are descended from the mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ), apart from the Muscovy duck ( Cairina moschata ). The Call duck is another example of a domestic duck breed. Its name comes from its original use established by hunters, as a decoy to attract wild mallards from the sky, into traps set for them on the ground. The call duck is the world's smallest domestic duck breed, as it weighs less than 1 kg (2.2 lb). Ducks appear on several coats of arms , including

2254-412: The water or feed on very shallow bottoms. They are not equipped to dive down several feet like their diving counterparts. The most prominent difference between puddle ducks and divers is the size of the feet. A puddle duck's feet are generally smaller because they do not need the extra propulsion to dive for their forage. Another distinguishing characteristic of puddle ducks when compared with diving ducks

2303-401: The water surface, or grazing, and only rarely diving. These are mostly gregarious ducks of freshwater or estuaries. These birds are strong fliers and northern species are highly migratory . Compared to other types of duck, their legs are located more towards the centre of their bodies. They walk well on land, and some species feed terrestrially. "Puddle ducks" generally feed on the surface of

2352-485: Was delimited in a 1986 study to include eight genera and some 50–60 living species. However, Salvadori's teal is almost certainly closely related to the pink-eared duck , and other genera are likewise of unresolved affiliation. The peculiar marbled duck , formerly tentatively assigned to the dabbling ducks, is thought to be a diving duck or even a distinct subfamily. This group of ducks has been so named because its members feed mainly on vegetable matter by upending on

2401-407: Was inherited from Proto-Indo-European ; cf. Latin anas "duck", Lithuanian ántis 'duck', Ancient Greek νῆσσα / νῆττα ( nēssa / nētta ) 'duck', and Sanskrit ātí 'water bird', among others. A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage or baby duck, but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender,

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