by Greg Mayer

With Honey and her fellow mallard inhabitants of Botany Pond in Chicago having flown the coop, and Jerry having done so himself for a few days, I had to travel north to Milwaukee to get my ration of duck feeding. There, on a visit with my vertebrate zoology class to the Milwaukee County Zoo, I was able to see Laysan Teal (Anas laysanensis) feeding.

Laysan Teal are relatives of mallards, and were once widespread in the Hawaiian archipelago, but were restricted to the small northwestern island of Laysan by the time of their scientific description by Lord Rothschild in 1892. They are still considered endangered, but other populations have been established by translocation within the Hawaiian Islands, and their numbers are now increasing. They do breed in captivity, and five ducklings were hatched at the Milwaukee County Zoo earlier this year.

The Teal are in the Aviary at the Zoo, in the Wetlands Hall, a large room with a “stream” running through it, surrounded by trees and herbaceous vegetation. Birds of several species fly about the hall. The teal prefer the shallow part of the stream.