Get Thee to a Duckery

"When I arrived in Long Island, New York, in 1969... there were seven major waterfowl collections just on this on island of New York.  Now none of them remain.  The same thing has happened with the major private collections in New England.  Except for the Ripley collection, they have all disappeared."

- The Waterfowl Man of Sylvan Heights

Collectively, zoos and aquariums have seen a decline in their populations of wild waterfowl over the years, both in terms of the number of individual birds and in the number of species they maintain.  Waterfowl exhibit space, such as duck ponds, are being lost.  A few very hardy (and common) species which do well in mixed-species exhibit, such as Egyptian geese, are thriving in the changing conditions.  Rarer, more delicate species, especially those that don't fit neatly into the popular geography-themed exhibits, are not.

It sometimes seems that there is a flaw with the Noah's Ark mentality of zookeeping - as some animals get bigger staterooms, others get tossed overboard.

It's a problem being encountered by many groups of animals.  Fortunately, waterfowl have something that many other species don't have - an enormous support base of private keepers who support these populations.  The duckeries, if you will.

For centuries, long before any traditional zoos were in existence, people have kept waterfowl privately, including exotic species as, essentially, living lawn ornaments.  Sometimes things have gone, well... fowl, as was the case in the United States, where European mute swans, brought over by private keepers, went rouge and overran much of the country, competing with an threatening other, native waterfowl species.  In other cases, in the hands of responsible owners, like the Lubbocks of Sylvan Heights, these collections have been an essential conservation resource, doing more for conservation of endangered waterfowl than any conventional zoo.

Laws and regulations for setting up private collections vary tremendously over the country.  In some places, a would-be aviculturalist will find himself or herself hogtied with red tape.  In others, anything goes - where perhaps a tiny bit more regulation wouldn't be the worst idea.  Still, I'm very supportive of this hobby.  Most caretakers will only want a pair or two of some common, easy to keep, colorful species - mandarins, ringed teals, etc - from a breeder.  That's fine.  Their business would still be supporting the breeder, their bread and butter, so to speak, which could then give them the resources and the freedom to dedicate themselves to a pet project of working with an endangered, delicate species more in need of conservation efforts.

I've sometimes thought that, if I ever got just enough money and land, I'd love to have a little aviary at home (assuming "home" ever means something other than an apartment).  Nothing fancy, maybe just a pen the size of a normal living room, holding a few pairs of birds of different species.  With a little pond, of course, so I could get a pair or two of ducks.  After work, I could come home and sit in the aviary, maybe toss a handful of Mazuri Waterfowl out over the surface of the water and watch the birds feed.

And in doing so, supposing that I selected my source well, I might know that, in a way, I was making my own special contribution to conserving a group of birds that I absolutely adore.