Australian and NZ Mallards confirmed to all be of domestic origin
Research research has confirmed that all Mallards in Australia and New Zealand have originated from domestic stock. There has been some confusion with the origins of "wild-type" looking breeds, and there has even been suggestions that some Mallards in New Zealand may have arrived their naturally, or were wild Mallards translocated for hunting. This as now been disproven.
Professor Rohan Clarke has summarised the research:
"Basically, mallard in the established free-flying NZ population (which has expanded to colonise Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island as Australian Territories) are derived from domesticated, captive-bred game bird releases. That is, these are the domestic lineage that have been released and gone feral, rather than wild caught, wild lineage birds that have been released to establish an introduced population.
It means that all Mallard in Australia are domestic-type.”
