Harteman Wildfowl Aviaries
Magpie goose
Anseranas semipalmata
Above: adult male magpie goose (photo by Jan Harteman).
The magpie goose is an odd kind of waterfowl. They hardly have any webs contrary to other waterfowl; magpie geese often find a high branch to sleep on. These birds live near the water in Australia, but they don't often swim. It doesn't have an eclips moult but loses its quills divided over the year, so that it can fly all year round.
This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 100,000-1,000,000 km². It has a large global population estimated to be 1,000,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2002). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Taxonomy
The magpie goose is the only species of the subfamily of Anseranatinae. The fact that people have doubted whether they were geese or ducks appears is clear from the two names in the scientific name: 'Anser' stands for goose and 'Anas' stands for duck. A cladistic study of the morphology of waterfowl found that the magpie goose was an early and distinctive offshoot, diverging after screamers and before all other ducks, geese, and swans.
Its family is quite old, a living fossil, having apparently diverged before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Breeding behaviour
Magpie geese form strong breeding group bonds, usually polygamous (one male and 2-3 females), which are thought to be lifelong. The male is dominant to females, but one female is dominant to other females. The dominant female in a breeding group pecks subordinate females. Persistent calling behavior is observed in the flock, which may aid group cohesion.
The females lay up to 16 eggs together in a large nest, the birds take turns incubating the eggs in 26 to 30 days.
Magpie goose males might be aggressors in captive collections, and even females can be agressive towards each other. Some breeding pairs are kept seperately from other waterfowl, while other pairs are kept in mixed collections without problems. Individual specimens can have quite divers characters.
Captive hathed goslings can receive a closed footring of 16 milimeters in size, at the age of 21 days.
Above: Magpie geese don't have webbed feet.
Above: a magpie goose female and her nest (in aviculture).
Above: adult male magpie goose.
Above: Magpie geese hardly swim, they prefer to wade in shallow water bodies.
Above: an adult pair of magpie geese (female left, male right).
Above: a magpie goose female incubating eggs (in aviculture).
Above: magpie goose, a gosling of a few days old.
Above: adult group of magpie geese; one male and three females.
Above: magpie goose in flight (in aviary), slow-motion
