Critically Endangered Teal Duck Spotted in Yunnan Baoshan, China

This is a teal duck (taken on February 22nd). Xinhua News Agency

Global critically endangered species teal duck appears in Yunnan Baoshan. Xinhua News Agency Kunming, February 25th (reporter Lin Bifen) reporters from Yunnan Province Baoshan Qinghua Sea National Wetland Park Management Center learned that recently, staff of the Qinghua Sea East Lake patrol monitored a globally critically endangered species teal duck. Qinghua Sea National Wetland Park Senior Engineer Duan Honglian introduced that teal ducks are migratory birds, distributed in East Asia and Southeast Asia, mainly in the Russian Far East and China's east coast for breeding, and in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Japan for overwintering. It is reported that since the 1990s, under the influence of habitat loss, overhunting, and human disturbance, the population of teal ducks has declined sharply, so it has been listed in the 'Critically Endangered (CR)' species in the 'Red List' of the World Conservation Union. 'This discovery is a male teal duck.' Duan Honglian said that teal ducks mainly inhabit lakes, reservoirs and marshes with slow-flowing water and relatively rich aquatic vegetation, usually mixed with other wild ducks, and can dive into deep water to feed on the roots, leaves, stems and seeds of various aquatic plants, and also on soft-bodied animals, aquatic insects, and crustaceans. The director of Qinghua Sea National Wetland Park, Lin Lei, said that in recent years, with the restoration of wetlands and the continuous improvement of ecological environment, the diversity and number of plants and animals have continued to increase, and currently, 209 species of birds have been monitored in Qinghua Sea National Wetland Park.