Manky Mallards

[Barjon]

I've seen a fair few odd-looking Mallards about and I've been looking in to it. I found this website that has coined the term Manky Mallards. I just think it's a really funny way to describe all the different Mallard cross-breeds that keep cropping up all over the shop.

“Manky Mallards” (domestic, feral, or just plain odd Mallards)

[acherontia]

Very interesting indeed! There's a few oddities hereabouts but not as weird as some of those. Perhaps they'd better keep it quite or there may be mass culling 'a la ruddy duck'.
How do you think they'd find the guilty party? Is it the other ducks forcing themselves on the innocent mallard or would they just start shooting the one that's most common?
Thanks for an amusing, yet very thought provoking post!

Acher

PS - Round here 'manky' means 'yukky' and undesirable. I often wonder if it's a derogatory term derived from the colloquial name for Mancunians LOL

[Harold Smith]

Manky is a word of unknown origin and is used as a derogatory term, though in some situations it is used as a term of endearment.

Here is a link to an earlier thread (Duck Conundrum) where the same subject came up.

Duck Conundrum

Harold

Ps: Mallards maybe accused of being manky but just look at my avatar. It is a Muscovey duck and what could be more manky than that.

[Barjon]

Why would people cull the ducks?

I'm not sure what party is responsible for the cross-breeding, i think it's just natural selection.

Oh yeah it could be derived from Mancunian interesting point. Apparently it was a really dirty city back in Engels' times so it might be from then.

Usually i'd use the word to describe soemthing a bit rotten i suppose, but i guess in this case it just means assorted mallards but cos it begins with m it has a ring to it.

Maybe marvellous mixed mallards would be more suitable =p

Muscovy's certainly are a bit manky but some prize breeds look quite stunning.

[acherontia]

Originally Posted by Barjon

Why would people cull the ducks?

I'm not sure what party is responsible for the cross-breeding, i think it's just natural selection.

Oh yeah it could be derived from Mancunian interesting point. Apparently it was a really dirty city back in Engels' times so it might be from then.

Usually i'd use the word to describe soemthing a bit rotten i suppose, but i guess in this case it just means assorted mallards but cos it begins with m it has a ring to it.

Maybe marvellous mixed mallards would be more suitable =p

Muscovy's certainly are a bit manky but some prize breeds look quite stunning.

I suppose if the 'common' mallards started to interbreed with what was deemed a 'rarity' or 'desirable' duck someone somewhere might suggest keeping the numbers down.
I wasn't being entirely serious - just raising a point about who decides what is 'desirable' and what is and how do they get to make that decision - as in the Ruddy Duck cull. A complex issue and one that, in the case of the Ruddy duck, is not always reversible. It's possibly part of a general ongoing progression and as you say it may be 'natural selection'. Canute didn't manage to turn back the tide, did he?
Also - there's been a recent examination of human's breeding patterns and it's been generally recognised that mixed race people are far healthier than same race beings. ie - the wider the gene pool the better.
Perhaps these creatures are cross breeding because we, by our great 'success' story are reducing their gene pool and it is necessary for them to diversify to survive?

Just a thought.

Acher

PS - Manky means the same here 'A bit rotten'. Mixed mallards would have been better but not as attention grabbing!

[posie]

Rightly or wrongly, I have always understood that at 'shooting' venues they used to put down ducks to call in the wild mallard ,(I don't know if this still applies) sometimes, not necessarily 'call-ducks' as we know them, but just ducks that call., and there is a superstition to put one white duck each time, if the white duck survives but takes off with fright (wouldn't you?) it is likely to join the flocks of escaping wild ducks (Mallard, originally pure),subsequently to breed with them, hence the white colouring in varying patterns in the previously pure 'mallard' ....Posie...

[Barjon]

Oh i never heard about the ruddy duck cull before! Yeah people are crazy, they trying to control nature but should just let nature take its course most of the time.

People want to preserve one species or another but what are our reasons for doing this? Why not just let nature decide who it wants to breed with?

We may "lose" some ruddy and white head to new sub-species but eventually sub-species will become new, more evolved species, so, problem?

Then protestors are outraged and want to fight the cullers. Another war on earth. I am myself surprised that the British did that in 2003 i thought we would not do such things any more but we had to keep spain happy i guess, quit them whining.

Gosh people get concerned themselves with many problems that do not really even matter don't they?

I think english eat too many fried food and alcohol to be their healthiest. If wider gene pool is best, then interbreeding should just be encouraged. I wonder if you can have too wide-a-gene pool?

Also by our great success story we introduce new species to indigenous populous and encourage or facilitate natural interbreeding.

Yeah that's it, manky mallard is also attention grabbing, "catchy".

Yeah posie, escaped domestic breeds of duck become feral and interbreed with wild ducks, and that's how we end up with the "manky mallards". Or they are introduced to foreign species and they interbreed. The same with pigeons but they dont have such diverse interbreeding as the mallard.