Tuesday, April 13, 2010

  Most ducklings hatched - world record set by a mallard duck

  HAZELBURY BRYAN, Dorset , UK -- Photographer Brian Moore , 70, caught 21 ducklings on camera with their mother after they hatched in the village of Hazelbury Bryan; the mallard duck sets the new world record for the Most ducklings hatched .

 ( enlarge photo )

    Their home was a duck house on a lake at the end of his son's garden.

 Mr Moore, of the same village, said he had photographed wildlife all his life but never seen anything quite so impressive.

    He said his eight-year-old twin grandchildren, Megan and Jordan, were hoping the number of ducklings might be a world record.

    "I've never seen 21 ducklings before," he said, describing it as "a miracle".

 "We thought there were about 18 eggs in the duck house, but it was only after I took the photos that we counted 21," he said.

    "I've been photographing wildlife all my life and I've never seen anything like it.

    "There are a lots of buzzards around here, foxes and crows, and we are hoping they don't get taken by predators."

 ...Unfortunatelly, the twenty-one "miracle" ducklings have died within a day of being hatched. It is thought they might have been eaten.

Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for predatory birds but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, 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 eagles.

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Related world records :
Biggest Rabbit - world record set by Darius the Rabbit

Oldest Pig - world record set by Oscar the Pig

Biggest Rabbit - Ralph the rabbit sets world record

Longest Animal Migration - The Arctic Tern sets world record

Tuesday, April 13, 2010