Unlike other ducks around the world who prefer to dabble around millpond-still lakes, wetlands and, well... ponds, our blue duck or whio are pure adrenalin junkies.
In fact, blue ducks have no other close relatives else in the world and they are one of only three species of duck on the planet who favour the whitewater rafting approach to life.
In order to survive in the rapids, whio have a whole raft (pun intended) of adaptations that make life in the whitewater easier to survive. They have a streamlined head, large webbed feet that fold behind the footbone when they bring their feet forward (to reduce drag), and a rubbery black lip on the edge of their bill that helps them scrape freshwater invertebrates off the rocks, without damaging their bills.
Whio have been hammered by the usual predators in New Zealand, but particularly stoats, which attack them on nesting sites above riverbanks. Whio pairs have large territories, of at least one kilometre of river. The males defend this stretch of river with their high pitched "whioooo" whistle that gives them their Maori name.
The tiny ducklings can handle rapids while they are still little balls of fluff due to their strong legs and nerves of steel. I watched them do this near Ruapehu a few years ago and I was blown away by the half a dozen ducklings, bobbing, swerving and occasionally getting swamped by the river rapids.
There are a lot of people looking out for whio these days, and they certainly need it, because despite being familiar to most of us by being found on the $10 note, only about 2000 of them remain.
One of the tricky things with whio is that you can't just scoop them up and put them on offshore islands - because, unlike other wildlife, whio need whitewater to survive. That creates a problem for protection, and it means we have to manage them here on mainland New Zealand where they live.
It seems that intensive predator control works well at keeping the whio afloat - have you ever seen a blue duck? What were they up to? Would you like to see more?
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A good place to see these guys up close is at Staglands north of Wellington. :-)
I was most surprised to see them first in salt water around our boat in Leigh harbour. Since then we have seen them fairly often - out at Great Barrier, around Whangaruru harbour where we used to live and elsewhere around the Far North.
".... you can't just scoop them up and put them on offshore islands - because, unlike other wildlife, whio need whitewater to survive"
Huh. So... either Alan Wilkinson mis-identified the birds he saw, or they're more ubiquitous than the experts think they are.
On one of my tramps, 5 mins after I had wandered by, my tramping friends saw a whio land where I had crossed the river. Still haven't seen any in the wild. :(
@viffer Staglands is not an offshore island and has (a small amount of) fast flowing water. It therefore still has all the issues of pest control to contend with, the main advantage of an offshore island.
Hi @alan_wilkinson. I think you must be talking about seeing pateke (brown teal), which are rare also, but can be seen in the Hauraki Gulf among other places... Whio are only found in fast flowing streams and rivers, usually inland. And a variety of nature parks and zoos have them also. Did you watch the video? Amazing to watch those wee ducklings eh?
Could be, Nicola. I'm not an expert. Of course Leigh harbour is very small with a couple of little rivers flowing into it so the birds we saw were not far from fresh water.
One of the best places to see Whio is along the Tongariro River in Turangi township, in amongst the fly fishers. I haven't yet seen one form the SH1 road bridge but they are not far away.
#Alan_Wilkinson, I wonder if what you are seeing around the offshore islands is the Brown Teal(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Teal)? A much smaller bird than a Whio, but a treat to see all the same.
I've seen whio in the Clinton River in Fiordland. Also in the Flora Stream in Kahurangi where they swam downstream towards us navigating small rapids. Both were very special encounters.
Lucky to have seen Whio twice. Once near Flora Hut, Kahurangi where a release of a group of young birds had been undertaken by the Friends of Flora trapping group & DOC.
The other was down the Leslie River, again Kahurangi. This one was just resting up on a rock mid-river, with its bill under its wing and standing on one leg.
I've seen these guys around on some of my trips, and a few times they've amazed me with their ability to navigate rapids. A couple of times I've gone "she's going to hit that... how the hell did she do that?!"
Awesome little guys, and well worth protecting.