The Ringed Teal. ..a duck for the softbin aviary

(Calonetta leucophrys)

by Josef H. Lindholm, III, Lead AviculturistEmerald Forest Bird Gardens

Fallbrook, California

At the San Antonio Zoo's HixonTropical Bird House, a darkened cir­cular walkway separates a ring ofsunlit, landscaped, glass-fronted avi­aries from a planted rotunda. Openedin the 1960s, this building has alwaysheld a wonderful collection and I wasnot disappointed at my first visit inJune 1984. In beautiful exhibits werebreeding White-breasted Bald Crows(Picathartes gymnocephalus), thefirst Giant Pittas and Pagodah MynahsI'd seen, African Pygmy Kingfishersnesting in an artificial mudbank, anative Black-chinned Hummingbirdand Yellow-romped Warbler, a smallflock of Saffron-crowned Tanagers(Tangara xanthocephala), andmany other species. A bird I've neverseen again was a Carmiol's Tanager(Chlorothraupis carmioli), fromCentral and South America. As Iadmired this large sombre bird,which shared its display with AndeanCocks-of-the-Rock and Blond-crestedWoodpeckers Celeus f!avescens),Assistant Director Ernest Roni, whowas escorting me through the house,pointed with delight at a femaleRinged Teal escorting a line of duck­lings out of the undergrowth to thestream at the front of the exhibit.

The Ringed Teal, which breeds intropical Argentina and Paraguay, andranges into Brazil, Bolivia, andUruguay, is primarily a forest bird(Delacour, 1956;Johnsgard, 1978). Itis frequently perched in trees andnests in tree-holes and the bulky sticknests of Monk Parrots (Delacour,1956; Johnsgard, 1978; and Todd,1979). Being a little duck, a fourththe mass of a Mallard (Todd, 1979), itis thus superbly adapted to a free­flight existence in a tropical aviary,indoors or out. As it does not dive(Delacour, 1956; Johnsgard, 1978), itdoes quite well in shallow water. Toits obvious advantage as an ornamen­tal bird, the Ringed Teal does notundergo an eclipse plumage, so nota­ble in Wood and Mandarin Ducks andNorthern Hemisphere Teal. Thedrake's wonderful combination of

64 October/November 1991

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Two Ringed Teal drakes, the fil'St oftheil' kind in EU1'Ope, keeping highlydistinguished company atZoologischer Gm'ten Berlin in 1907, depictedby staff-artistPaul Neumann. At the centel' ofthis pictum is the nowextinct Pink-headed Duck (IUlodonessa caryophyllacea) from India. Whilethe Silvel' Teal, on the other side ofthe Ringed Teal, and the Plumed T,'eeDucks in the upper C0171e1~ are not now ve1Y ra1'e, they are still compm'a­tively expensive. The Hawaiian Nene Geese, above the Teal, were, in1907, p1'Obably rm'er than the Pink-headed Duck. The South AmericanBlackfaced Ibis (Theristicus caudatus melanopis) has never beencommonplace in zoos. White-naped and Wattled O'anes have continuedto decline in the Wild, and m'e now the subjects ofcm'eful captivemanagement. The dm'k bi,'dat center bottom is a Limpken (Aramusgarauna). Although this specialized snail-eater has a velY wide distl'ibu­tion in Central and South Amel'ica as well as FlO1'ida and extreme South­e17'l Georgia, it has been almost non-existent in collections and thel'e amnow none in captivity.

the zoo's magazine (Anon. 1967).Marvin Jones, San Diego's registrar,informed me that zoo records indi­cate only that these birds came froma Mr. Lintz, about whom I have foundnothing further, and their subse­quent history is not recorded. SanDiego Zoo did not obtain additionalbirds until 1974, when a pair arrivedfrom the Canadian dealer KenChisolm, and 1975, when anotherpair was obtained from the MiamiRare Bird Farm. Marvin Jones believesthe 1975 pair were most likely wildbirds. The San Diego Wild AnimalPark also received birds about thistime.

Mickey Ollson, owner and directorof the Wildlife World Zoo near Pho­enix, Arizona, told me that some timebetween 1970 and 1975, the RingedTeal went from being an expensiverarity to an easily obtained bird. TheInternational Zoo Yearbookrecords for 1970 list six institutionsbreeding this species: Jean Dela­cour's collection at Cleres;Slimbridge; the now defunct Slade­more Gardens at High Wycombe,England; and three U. S. Zoos - GreatBend, Kansas; Naples, Florida; andthe National Zoological Park at

~ (1956) tells us that the Ringed Teal'§ was Lord Grey's favorite waterfowl.~ The German aviculturist Hartmut~ Kolbe (1979) states that few if any of

... ",.,.""."..."" . .6 these ducks appear to have been~fj4~'J;~flf~",J~ -§ exported between 1910 and 1950,

_.. .:. ct· and the European captive population- .~ . was displaying inbreeding depression

by the 1930s. Delacour (1956), whobred them at Cleres in the '30s, statesthat none of the captive birds sur­vived the Second World War. NoRinged Teal appear to have arrived inNorth America to that point.

The species does not appear tohave been bred again until 1955,when six females were hatched atthe Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge,England (Delacour 1956). Aside fromSlimbridge, only one other collectionis listed in the breeding records of thefirst five volumes of the Interna-

A Ringed Teal drake at the Watet10wl tional Zoo Yearbook, covering 1959G1·ust,Slimbridge,!romwheremanyo! to 1963; The New York Zoologicalthis species now in captivity originated. Park (Bronx Zoo) hatched Ringed

Teal in 1962 and 1963 (ZoologicalSociety of London 1961-65).Through the 1960s, this birdremained a rarity in collections.When the San Diego Zoo obtained itsfirst pair in December 1966, a photo­graph was prominently featured in

reddish-chestnut, pale peach, metal­lic green, white, grey, and black linesand trout speckles, is retainedthroughout the year, affording apleasing contrast to the attractivelysubtle brown and white pattern ofthe female. As the "ringed" patternof the male's head is often not ve~ r-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~obvious, I agree with zoo historianMarvin Jones that the German name"Red-shouldered Teal" is far moreappropriate.

It was to Germany that the firstRinged Teal were exported fromSouth America, arriving at Zoolo­gischer Garten Berlin, in the compar­atively late year of 1907. The year isusually given as 1908, but the accom­panying picture is dated a year earlierby avicultural historian HeinZ-SigurdRaethel (1979). Berlin's first speci­mens, regarded as treasured raritiesin what was then the largest collec­tion of birds in the world, were allmales (Delacour 1956). Delacour(1956) further records that othersshortly arrived in German privatecollections, the London Zoo, and thelegendary aviaries of F.E. Blaauw atGooilust, Holland.

Though Blaauw shortly bred largenumbers of Ringed Teal, the firstsuccess appears to have occurred inGermany, as Delacour (1956) notesthat young birds were offered onGerlnan price-lists in 1911. Britishsuccesses soon followed; the greatstatesman, Lord Grey of Fallodon(Teddy Roosevelt's birding buddy),doing particularly well. Delacour

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Washington (Zoological Society ofLondon, 1972). Great Bend's BritSpaugh Zoo, specializing in NorthAmerican animals, appears to havebeen listed in error. Doug Burt, akeeper, investigated the records andfound no mention of Ringed Teal. Onthe other hand, Jungle Larry's AfricanSafari at Naples took over CarribeanGardens, at one time America'slargest waterfowl collection. Twelvehatched there in 1970, while 15hatched at Washington.

In 1987, the latest year recorded bythe International Zoo Yearbook(Zoological Society of London,1991), 36 institutions that bredRinged Teal are listed. Nineteen arein the U.S. Of these, the most suc­cessful were Houston, with 43hatched, and 30 raised; Knoxville,Tennessee, 22 hatched, and 15raised; Memphis, where 49 werehatched and reared; San AntonioZoo, with 34 hatched and 28 raised;and Tyler, Texas, with 15 hatched,and 14 raised.

On the price-lists of waterfowlbreeders, Ringed Teal are one of theleast expensive species, a pair cost­ing about the same as one GouldianFinch from a pet store. Mickey Ollsontold me that in the 1960s, a pair costthe same as a pair of Black-neckedSwans - birds that now cost morethan twenty times as much as RingedTeal.

As excellent as this species is foraviaries, it does perfectly wellpinioned, on lakes or ponds. Whilethey do need protection from icyweather (Kolbe, 1979), the two pairsat Emerald Forest Bird Gardens camethrough nights in the low 30s with­out problem. The Emerald ForestRinged Teal are a pair, hatched at theSan Antonio Zoo in June, 1990, amale from Sea World of Florida, and afemale from Sea World San Diego, allarriving in the fall of 1990. Despitetheir diminutive size, they have neverbeen bullied by any ofthe 23 otherspecies on our one acre lake, and canalways be seen, usually in the com­pany of a variety of other species.They do quite well on commercialgamebird pellets and flamingo meal,most likely supplemented by plantand animal food from the lake. Asidefrom protection from extreme cold,the one special concession theyrequire is enclosed nest boxes(Delacour, 1956; Kolbe, 1979). FrankTodd (1979) gives the average clutchsize as six to twelve.

For many years, the Ringed Teal

was believed by many to be a rarebird in the wild, possibly highlyendangered. In the 1970s, however,field research showed they werequite abundant in certain localities,and in no apparent danger of extinc­tion (Kolbe, 1979). This fact, andtheir current establishment in captiv­ity, is especially pleasing in light ofthis species' peculiar evolutionaryposition. Though a number of refer­ences continue to include it in theTeal genus Anas, recent trends havebeen to follow Johnsgard (1978),who, in the 1960s, not only con­cluded that it belonged in its owngenus, but that it should be includedin the already fantastically diversetribe Cairinini, which includes thehuge and grotesque Spur-wingedGeese and Comb Ducks, the threespecies of Pygmy Geese, the Musco­vey Duck, the Wood and MandarinDucks, Brazilian Teal, and severalother species. On the other hand,recent research on comparitivefeather proteins suggests a relation­ship to the Teal tribe afterall Oohns­gard, 1978). Delacour (1956)suggested possible affinities to thePochard tribe.

At a time when this bird had onlyrecently reappeared in collectionsand was still very rare, Jean Delacour(1956) wrote, "It is hard to imagineprettier or more satisfactory teal incaptivity. They are tame, gentle,quiet, but active, and they possess abright plumage throughout theyear." Now, when it is one of themost readily obtainable of all water­fowl, this description is just as apt.

References:Anon, 1967, Around the Zoo, ZooNooz XL

(No.2) 14.Delacour, J.T., 1956, The Waterfowl of the

World - Volume Two: The DabblingDucks, Country Life Limited, London.

Johnsgard, P.A., 1978, Ducks, Geese andSwans ofthe World, University of NebraskaPress.

Kolbe, H., 1979, 01'1wmental Waterfowl,edition Leipzig.

Raether, H.S., 1979, Zur Geschichte der Stelz­vogelhaltung im Berliner ZoologischenGarten in den Jahren 1844 bis 1945(feil 11), Bongo (Berlin), III, 39-48.

Todd, F.S., 1979, Watel10wl- Ducks, Geeseand Swans of the World, Sea World Press/Harcourt BraceJovanovich.

Zoological Society of London, 1961-65, 1972,1991, International Zoo Yearbook, I-V, XlIandlXXX.

Acknowledgement:I am most grateful to DipI.-BioI. Rudolf

Reinhard, Curator of Birds at ZoologischerGarten Berlin, for securing permission toreproduce the 1907 illustr.ltion.•