Meet the Zoo: Winter on the Marsh

With brilliant plumage and puffed out chests, the Mandarin ducks at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo are vying for the attention of the brown females swimming about the Discovery Trail marsh. This courtship activity might make you think it is spring, but it’s happening right now in the middle of winter.

Although the marsh might be partially frozen over with patches of ice large enough for the ducks to walk across, a series of underwater bubblers keep sections of the water from freezing, so there’s plenty room for swimming—and chasing female ducks.

Visitors who spend some time watching the Mandarin ducks will be amused by their courtship behaviors. The males puff up and actually bump their chests together in a show of dominance.  Occasionally, one of the male Mallard ducks will try to get into the act, but the little Mandarins are too focused on their courtship to put up with any interference.

A few Mallards make the marsh their home but are not officially part of the zoo’s bird collection. These birds are free to fly in and out as they wish, visiting many of the small bodies of water in Prospect Park or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  A few other visitors like the beautiful North American wood ducks often stop by the marsh in winter.  These visitors are native species and rival the Mandarin’s with the beauty of their plumage. 

Many visitors ask about the large cage-like structure at the back of the marsh. Normally hidden by leaves, this structure is called an excluder and is meant to keep the local mallards from eating all the food meant for the zoo ducks.

Most of the zoo ducks are diving ducks, which refers to species that dive underwater to feed.  The zoo’s diving ducks easily enter and exit the excluder from below the surface to eat. Mallards are unable to do this and are too big to squeeze through the bars of the excluder. 

Other marsh residents include the red eared slider turtles. They are very popular during the spring and summer months when they spend their days basking on logs or swimming through the marsh for food pellets tossed by zoo visitors. In the winter these reptiles do not hibernate, but they do become less active in a process called brumation. Once outdoor temperatures fall, the turtles move to the bottom of the marsh.  If the temperature rises, visitors might see turtles come to the surface to catch a few winter rays, but as soon as the temperature drops, so do the turtles. 

So even though it’s chilly and the trees are bare, there’s plenty going on at the Prospect Park Zoo.