Facts about this animal
The shelduck is a large duck of 0.98-1.45 kg in males and 0.8-1.25 in females, larger than a mallard but smaller than geese. It has a particularly prominent red bill, black-green head, and chestnut and white upperparts. In flight, shelducks look heavy and have slow-beating wings.
The female lays 7-12 creamish eggs into a nest sited usually in cavities, burrows, haystacks etc., or occasionally an open nest, which she incubates alone for 30 days.
Shelduck feed on invertebrates, small shellfish and aquatic snails.
Did you know?
that people along the North Sea coast call the shelducks "cave geese" because they are particularly fond of burrows as nesting sites? They do not excavate the holes but rather use the abandoned tunnels of rabbits or foxes. Perhaps as the result of a shortage of adeqaute nesting sites, several females may use the same nest.
|Name (Scientific)||Tadorna tadorna|
|Name (French)||Tadorne de belon|
|Name (Spanish)||Tarro blanco|
|Local names||Czech: Husice liscí
Hungarian: Bütykös ásólút
|CITES Status||Not listed|
|CMS Status||Appendix II (as Anatidae spp.) Included in AEWA|
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|Range||Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong. India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, PDR, Korea, Rep., Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mongolia Myanmar, Nepal Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia ,Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen Europe: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland. Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, former Yug. Rep., Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Fed., Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom North and West Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia Vagrants in some more countries on all three continents.|
|Habitat||Estuaries, coasts, freshwater wetlands|
|Wild population||The global population is estimated to be 580,000 to 710,000 individuals by Wetlands International (2002).|
|Zoo population||779 reported to ISIS (2006).|
In the Zoo
How this animal should be transported
For air transport, Container Note 18 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.
Find this animal on ZooLex
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Why do zoos keep this animal
The shelduck is a very attractive, colourful species, thus a good ambassador for wetland conservation.