The
last living pink-headed duck is was seen in the wild in 1949 in India
While
other birds have pink feathers no other game birds have them
Scientists
studied a stuffed specimen from the Smithsonian Museum
They
found a pigment seen in flamingos was responsible for the colour
PUBLISHED: 23:02,
27 January 2016 | UPDATED: 23:46, 27 January 2016
A
stuffed duck with unusual pink feathers around its head has been used to solve
a puzzle about how the extinct species of bird got its vivid plumage.
The
pink-headed duck is thought to have died out 67 years ago, leaving scientists
baffled about how it developed the distinctive colouration that earned the bird
its name.
While
some birds such as flamingos are known to be pink due to the large quantities
of red and blue-green algae they consume, how the pink-headed duck got its
colour was a mystery.
Scientists
used the 68-year-old stuff remains of a pink-headed duck (pictured top) to work
out what is responsible for the animal's vivid plumage around its head (close
up bottom left). Scientists found natural pigments called carotenoids
(illustrated in the graph bottom right) were responsible for the distinct pink
colour
Now
scientists have used a stuffed specimen that has been held by the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington DC, for 68 years to solve the puzzle.
They
used an advanced non-destructive testing method known as Raman spectroscopy to
examine the bird's feathers.
They
found the ducks, which were endemic to the Gangetic plains of India and
Bangladesh, used the same organic pigments - carotenoids - as flamingos to
produce their pink plumage.
The
only other duck to be found to have these carotenoids is in the feathers of the
tiny 'ear' spots of Australia's Pink-eared Duck – an animal which is
otherwise entirely black, brown, and white.
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