Ducks, Geese & Waterfowl

Familiar as cartoon characters and stars of TV commercials, hunted and domesticated for centuries, waterfowl yet remain emblems of the wild. From shallow coastal bays to some of the highest and fastest alpine streams, waterfowl occupy all aquatic habitats of Earth except the remote pelagic zone of the oceans. The familiar waterfowl of the Northern Hemisphere are a small subset of a more ancient diversity still visible in the Southern Hemisphere, where there are black swans, geese that never swim, and ducks with a bizarre assortment of bills and appendages. Lastly, it turns out that ducks have riveting sex lives, with some males having penises as long as their bodies and females possessing twisted oviducts to match.