A Conversation for Colours of Wildlife: Labrador Ducks

Did the Labrador not Duck when the hunter aimed at him/her?

Post 1

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

It's sad when species become sad, and doubly so when those species are not appropriately leery of human presence. Or, for that matter, the presence of any predators. Case in point: many of the ground-nesting birds in Hawaii. (Do you see how I am in danger of causing topic drift here? Be patient. I may reach a point that is relevant.)

Hawaii, unlike the Americas, was and is so remote that birds and mammals can only get there by flying or swimming long distances. So, bats could fly there, and seals could swim. neither type of animal would have been a threat to birds, so it seemed safe for Hawaii's birds to nest on the ground.

Then came man, who brought along rats, pigs, and eventually mongooses (mongeese). The mongoose as supposed to keep the rats under control, except that one was nocturnal, the other diurnal.

Now, back to the Labrador Duck. It presumably survived thousands of years of coexistence with First nations peoples, who had almost certainly wiped out manyh of the large mammals on the continent long past. And, although, good with bows and arrows, they were seemingly
content with not driving local birds to extinction. Instead (or in addition to continuing to hunt deer, bears, etc.), many of them took up farming. Corn as particularly useful, as the men on the Lewis and Clark expedition found in what are now the Dakotas.

So, the Labrador Duck coexisted peacefully with mankind for a very long time, and then fell to the descendants of the European invasion. sad!

May I ask, though, how you knew what this species looked like? I know that photography existed by the 1870s, but did color photos exist? And did someone photogrfaph the Labrador Duck? Just curious. smiley - smiley


Did the Labrador not Duck when the hunter aimed at him/her?

Post 2

Willem

Hello Paulh! Yes it's very sad about all those Hawaiian birds, and I'll hopefully get to them too!

As for what the Labrador Duck looked like: you know what I am, right? I'm an artist. Those existed before photography! And the Labrador Duck was depicted in several paintings. These paintings in turn were done from specimens that had been shot. There are also several taxidermied specimens. Thus, we know quite well what it looked like!


Did the Labrador not Duck when the hunter aimed at him/her?

Post 3

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

I'm glad to hear that. smiley - smiley


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