Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Hymenolaimus > Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos

Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos (Blue Duck)

Synonyms: Anas malacorhynchos; Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus; Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus malacorhynchus

Wikipedia Abstract

The blue duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos) is a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae endemic to New Zealand. It is the only member of the genus Hymenolaimus, placed in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae after previously being considered part of the paraphyletic "perching duck" assemblage. The Māori name, sometimes used in English, is whio (pronounced "fee-oh"), which is an onomatopoetic rendition of the males' call. The blue duck is depicted on the reverse side of the New Zealand $10 banknote.
View Wikipedia Record: Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos

Infraspecies

Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos hymenolaimus
Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos malacorhynchos

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
4
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
56
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 8.78684
EDGE Score: 4.36048
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [6]  5
Clutches / Year [2]  1
Incubation [3]  35 days
Mating Display [7]  Ground display
Mating System [7]  Monogamy
Snout to Vent Length [2]  21 inches (54 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Rivers and Streams
Adult Weight [2]  1.834 lbs (832 g)
Birth Weight [3]  70 grams
Female Weight [5]  1.693 lbs (768 g)
Male Weight [5]  1.978 lbs (897 g)
Weight Dimorphism [5]  16.8 %
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  80 %
Diet - Plants [4]  20 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  100 %

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Arthur's Pass National Park II 257008 South Island, New Zealand
Fiordland National Park II 3106115 New Zealand  
Mount Aspiring National Park II 473907 South Island, New Zealand
Te Wahipounamu—South West New Zealand World Heritage Site 6424740 New Zealand  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
New Zealand New Zealand Yes

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Nestor notabilis (Kea)1

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Blue Duck (Whio), Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos Recovery Plan, Threatened Species Recovery Plan Series No. 22, New Zealand Department of Conservation
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Marchant, S.; Higgins, PJ (eds.) 1990. The handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, Vol. 1., ratites to ducks. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
♦ 6A comparative study of egg mass and clutch size in the Anseriformes, Jordi Figuerola and Andy J. Green, J Ornithol (2006) 147: 57–68
♦ 7Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 9del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0