Harvard Collaboration

In 2018, The Conservancy partnered with Harvard University to investigate waterfowl anatomy specializations across duck phylogeny that exist due to trade-offs resulting from the demands of varying movement regimes (e.g. flying, swimming, and diving). 

This study utilized high speed cameras to track movement behaviors, such as surface swimming, diving, and walking patterns. Cameras were placed both above and below the water in order to track foot motion and speed. The species examined included dabbling, diving, and sea duck clades and focused specifically on the Laysan duck (Anas laysanensis), Puna teal (Spatula puna), New Zealand scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae), Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri), and Common eider (Somateria mollissima).

Video H.1:Common Eider dive shot at 1/5 normal speed

Video H.2: New Zealand Scaup dive shot at 1/5 normal speed

Yale Collaboration

In 2017, The Conservancy partnered with Yale University to investigate the molecular basis for the sense of touch within the bills of waterfowl which exhibit varying foraging behaviors. The Conservancy supplied Yale with eggs from the Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), and the Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus). Eggs were then examined to understand how the expression of mechanosensitive ion channels and associated proteins vary per foraging strategy within the Anatidae family. While this work is still in progress, the Bagriantsev lab has published previous works investigating the molecular basis of tactile specialization in the duck bill (see *Figure Y.1 and *Video Y.1 below).

*Figure Y.1: Light-sheet microscopy and Tuj1 immunostaining of a whole-mount preparation of embryonic duck bill skin. Shown is a still image from Video 1.

*Video Y.1: Light-sheet microscopy of a whole-mount preparation of a patch of dorsal bill skin (0.64 mm2) from a late-stage duck embryo stained with Tuj1 antibody. 

*E. R. Schneider, E. O. Anderson, M. Mastrotto, J. D. Matson, V. P. Schulz, P. G. Gallagher, R. H. LaMotte, E. O. Gracheva, and S. N. Bagriantsev. 2017. Molecular Basis of Tactile Specialization in the Duck Bill. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114 (49):13036-13041.