Where the tide rips swirl,
And the wild ducks whirl,
And old Neptune calls the number,
'Neath the broad Atlantic combers.
                         
                      Otto Kelland
     "Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's"

DID YOU KNOW?

Local names for the harlequin duck
include: lords and
ladies, rock duck, squeakers, ladybirds,
white-eyed divers
and sea mice.

DID YOU KNOW?

Harlequins are considered an
indicator species,
meaning that their declining populations
may be an early
reflection of changes
in the wildland
habitats on which they depend.

DID YOU KNOW?

Young harlequins can swim only days after they hatch. Some hens will leave the nesting rivers even before their young can fly at eight weeks of age. The ducklings then have to find food and shelter on their own.

DID YOU KNOW?

The only North American duck to become extinct, the Labrador duck, is believed to have bred
in a restricted range
in southern Labrador. Probably never abundant, it was
sought for its flesh, feathers and eggs. Fifty-four museum specimens throughout the world are all that remain to remind us that it ever existed.

DID YOU KNOW?

Worldwide loss of habitat (not poaching
or hunting) is the largest contributing factor to the loss of wildlife. Other causes include:
environmental pollution, disruption
of migration routes
and breeding
behaviors, human
disturbance, and
illegal trade of
protected animals
and animal parts.

Worldwide, harlequins are divided into four separate populations: the Pacific, Greenland, Iceland and eastern North American. The Pacific (Asia and northwestern America) population has about one million individuals. The Greenland and Iceland populations have approximately 10,000 individuals each. The eastern North American population is estimated at less than 1,000 individuals and is declining at an unknown rate.

HISTORY OF DECLINE

The harlequins found in Newfoundland and Labrador are part of the eastern North American population.For some reason, or perhaps many reasons, the harlequins of Atlantic Canada are declining, little by little, towards the point of no return. For example, as late as the 1950s, several thousand could be found near Cape St. Mary's, an important wintering area in southwestern Newfoundland. In 1975 there were less than 100 and in the early 1990s there were less than 50 at the Cape.

Hunting the harlequin is illegal, but other seaducks which share the same wintering habitat are legally hunted. Some harlequin ducks are still mistakenly or deliberately shot during the hunting season, although many hunters now avoid shooting this rare bird.

Oil pollution has increased with the growth in motorized boat traffic since the 1930s. Oil spills and/or ships flushing their bilge or slop tanks at sea can wipe out an entire wintering flock. A spot of oil, the size of a one dollar coin is enough to kill a seabird. The oil mats the bird's feathers, which become water-logged and the bird slowly freezes to death. If a harlequin or other bird preens its oiled feathers and ingests the oil, it may be poisoned.

A number of rivers, both on the Island and in Labrador, are being considered for
hydroelectric development. Some of these rivers have harlequin duck populations. If developed, some parts of the rivers will be flooded while other parts will be dried up. These changes may affect breeding habitat, food and travel routes.

Another problem can occur in winter or early spring when severe weather or a heavy concentration of pack ice may block access to their winter feeding and resting areas.

Any one, or a combination of these problems, can cause further decline or even
the extinction of the harlequin duck.

PRESENT STATUS

Of the estimated 1,000 individuals in the eastern North American population, our province is fortunate to have a small but important share. In the spring and summer, most of the breeding population is in Labrador and northern Quebec, but the exact number of ducks there is unknown. A few rivers draining the Long Range Mountains of western Newfoundland are known to have breeding harlequins. It is estimated that less than 100 winter off coastal Newfoundland.

The harlequin was designated as Endangered in 1990 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). It is the first North American duck to reach such critical status in modern times. Since 1990-91, there has been no open season for the hunting of harlequin in eastern Canada, and even shooting one by mistake is illegal.

HABITAT

The harlequin's choice of habitat is as wild as its plumage. In the spring most breed in Labrador on the turbulent streams which flow into the Atlantic Ocean and Ungava Bay from the rugged Torngat Mountains. In winter they migrate to southern Newfoundland, along the rugged coasts where there are exposed rocky headlands, sunken reefs, and where the surf breaks against jagged rocks.

FOOD

What they eat differs in spring and winter. In spring, on the breeding streams, they
walk against the current, poking their bills among the stones to catch the larvae of black flies, caddis flies, and midges. In fact, the northern extent of the harlequin appears to coincide with the northern limit of the black fly. It is also possible that arctic char and salmon roe are important foods for breeding harlequins in Labrador.

In winter, these incredible small ducks dive for food among the rugged, surf-pounded rocks. When observing them, you cannot help but wonder why they are not crushed by the surf. They dive, and just when you believe they are in trouble, they pop up to the surface like corks and get ready to dive again.

They feed there because these turbulent and oxygen-rich waters are rich in invertebrates. Harlequins search the ocean bottom and among seaweed for crabs, snails and fish roe. The few harlequins wintering in southern Newfoundland mostly feed on small amphipods (sea lice) and gastropods (wrinkles).

BREEDING BIOLOGY AND HABITS

In spring, harlequins congregate at river mouths and estuaries and breed along turbulent streams. The males and non-breeding adults may return to river mouths and coastal areas in mid-summer, the hens and young return later on.

Harlequin ducks may become sexually mature at two to three years of age, but like many seaducks, may not successfully raise young until they are older. They nest under bushes or in a cavity among rocks. The nest is lined with grasses and down. Five or six cream to pale buff coloured eggs are laid during May to July. The female incubates them for about twenty-eight days. Like all seaducks, male harlequins abandon the breeding grounds once incubation begins. The young are able to fly in about forty days. Because harlequins are late maturing and because they don't have many young each year, it is difficult for their populations to recover from environmental stress.

Breeding distribution includes the turbulent rivers of eastern Hudson Bay, James Bay, Ungava Bay, the northern portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador. They overwinter in the coastal areas of the Atlantic provinces and New England states as far south as Rhode Island.

Some scientists suspect that populations are influenced by the quantity of food (aquatic insect larvae) available on the breeding rivers. A very low food supply can result in high rates of non-breeding - greater than eighty percent in any one year.

RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT

A Harlequin Duck Recovery Team has been established composed of experts from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Maine, and is coordinated by the Canadian Wildlife Service. The goal of the team is to implement a plan that will maintain a healthy harlequin population in Atlantic Canada. They have determined that at least five hundred birds, with over eighty percent being breeders, are needed to allow this population to survive.

In order to achieve this goal, they must prevent habitat loss due to human action. Examples of human action that hurt harlequin ducks are oil pollution and some hydroelectric development. The team hopes the implementation of its plan will increase the population from less than 1,000 to 2,000-3,000 individuals.

Some of the action needed to protect the harlequin may include:

• Monitoring oil pollution and hydroelectric
  development to   ensure that they do not
  contribute to needless loss of birds or habitat;

• Studying the impact of hunting
   pressure due to hunting of other
   sea ducks that share the same habitat;

• Increasing enforcement to prevent illegal hunting;

• Increasing information and education programs
  on the harlequin;

• Continuing winter counts, and breeding ground
   surveys to help our understanding of harlequin
   populations and distribution;

• Protecting the breeding and wintering habitat which
  supports the remaining harlequin ducks.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

Specialized habitat use and tameness are qualities that the harlequin share with the now extinct Labrador duck. This duck became extinct around 1870, before we learned much about its habits and life cycle. The harlequin duck need not follow that path. There are many successful bird stories: the wood duck and the greater snow goose are two species that have been helped by caring people.

In the early 1900s the wood duck had become scarce. Protection came in the form of the signing of the Migratory Bird Act in 1916 by Canada and the United States. Prior to this Act, all migratory birds could be hunted all year round. Also the protection of suitable habitat and controlled hunting helped tremendously. Since the wood duck nests in tree cavities, people supplemented the natural nests with artificial nest boxes which the wood duck accepted in great numbers. The present population of the wood ducks is now estimated at between two and four million birds.

In the early 1900s, the total world population of the greater snow goose was estimated at approximately 3,000 individuals. Protection of their habitat and enforcement of the Migratory Bird Act has helped increase the population from 3,000 in the early 1900s to an estimated 250,000 birds today.

History presents us with the consequences of our past choices. The choices made today will show up in the books of our children. Will the harlequin follow the path of
the wood duck, greater snow goose or the Labrador duck? The choice is still ours.

THE FUTURE: A HARLEQUIN ROMANCE

Endangered species like the harlequin have many challenges to face. If we are a caring society, we must ensure that the harlequin does survive.

We know many things about the harlequin's habitat requirements, breeding biology and life cycle, but there is so much more we don't know. We need more studies so decisions can be made based on facts and scientific research, but we also need to have the courage to use our hearts as well.

If we work together our romance with the harlequin can have a happy-ever-after ending, where people's needs are balanced with other wild creatures. Then the harlequin duck will continue to share our planet with us, and future generations will be able to experience their own harlequin romance.