Mallard Ducks in Lucerne, Switzerland
Channel: Peter Job
Date: 2011-09-25

Spoken by Lee from Australia (Mac OS X Voice).

Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne was voted the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world in 2010 by Tripadvisor.

The Lake Lucerne has a complicated shape, with bends and arms reaching from the city of Lucerne into the mountains. It has a total area of 44 sq miles and a maximum 702 ft. Much of the shoreline rises steeply into mountains above the lake, resulting in many picturesque views including those of Mount Rigi and Mount Pilatus.

The Mallard is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate andsubtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. The male birds have a bright green or blue head, while the female's is light brown. The duck lives in wetlands, eats water plants, and is gregarious. The Mallard is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and can interbreed with other species of genus Anas. However, a potentially terminal side effect of this vast interbreeding capability is gradual genetic dilution, which is causing rarer species of ducks to become at risk for extinction. The Mallard Duck is omnivorous and very flexible in its food choice. Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and inter- and intraspecific competition. The majority of the Mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, invertebrates, crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.