Mandarin duck – therare duck has created a flutter in Upper Assam
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Environment
- Published
15th Feb, 2021
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Context
- The spectacular and rare Mandarin duckis found floating in the Maguri-Motapungbeel (or wetland) in Assam’s Tinsukia district for over a week.
What is the Mandarin duck?
- The Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) was first identified by Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is considered the most beautiful duck in the world.
- Migratory route:The migratory duck breeds in Russia, Korea, Japan, and northeastern parts of China.
- Habitat: It is a “small-exotic looking bird” native to East Asia. It has established populations in Western Europe and America too.
- Presence in India:The duck rarely visits India as it does not fall in its usual migratory route.It is also common for them to stray from the path.
What is the Maguribeel?
- The MaguriMotapungbeel is a
- It is an Important Bird Area as declared by the Bombay Natural History Society.
- It is located close to the DibruSaikhowa National Park in Upper Assam.
- The entire ecosystem (grassland and wetland) is very important.
- It is home to at least 304 bird species, including several endemic ones like Black-breasted parrotbill and Marsh babbler.
DibruSaikhowa National Park
- Dibru-Saikhowa National Park is a national park in Assa m andis located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
- The park is bounded by the Brahmaputra and Lohit Rivers in the north and the Dibruriver in the south.
- It mainly consists of moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes, and grasslands.
- It is the largest salix swamp forest in north-eastern India.
- Species include Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, clouded leopard, dhole, small Indian civet, Malayan giant squirrel, Chinese pangolin, Gangetic dolphin, slow loris, pig tailed macaque, rhesus macaque, Asian elephant, wild boar,hog deer, etc.
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