#blue ducks

[id: digital drawing of Ben and Jerry the blue ducks as humans. They are swimming together in a pond. Jerry is a chubby Maori man with warm medium skin tone and long curly black hair held back in a loose bun, and a light beard and mustache, faint body hair, and brown eyes. His feet and torso are peeking out of the water, and he is leaning in towards Ben and looking up at him and smiling and blushing. He has a small Moko tattoo band around his upper right arm. He is wearing a sleeveless dark blue swim top with a high collar, darker blue swim bottoms, and black swim shoes. His swim top has light brown and grey accents on the chest. He has a fish hook piercing in his right earlobe, and he has white and black lipstick. Ben is a chubby Maori man with cool medium skin tone and short curly black hair with an undercut, faint body hair, and brown eyes. His torso is peeking out of the water as if he is treading water, and his looking down at Jerry and smiling and blushing. He has a Moko tattoo on his chin. He is wearing a short-sleeved dark blue swim top and darker blue swim bottoms. His swim top has light brown and grey accents on the chest, and he has white and black lipstick. The water is dark, and behind them there is long grass and a grey-blue sky. ]

Ben and Jerry, the blue ducks that frazzled and engaged scientists by falling for each other instead of the other female duck, drawn as humans.

Blue Ducks - Four Inches Of Water

Blue ducks make themselves at home

SCOT MACKAY

Last updated 05:00 10/02/2011 Share Print Text Size BARRY HARCOURT/Southland Times BE FREE: Fiordland Wapiti Foundation project manager Chris Whyte (left) and Southern Lakes Helicopters pilot Brendan Hiatt release some rare blue ducks near the head of Lake Te Anau yesterday.

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The blue duck population in Fiordland has just got bigger after 13 of the rare species were released from captivity yesterday.

The ducks have been incubated, hatched and reared at the Te Anau Wildlife Park since October and were released near the head of Lake Te Anau.

Department of Conservation Te Anau biodiversity ranger Andrew "Max" Smart said it took two weeks to get a window of good weather to release the ducks.

"They looked really, really good – as soon as they were out of their carry cases they were out looking for bugs and things to eat."

The ducks, known as whio, had been in rapid decline since the introduction of pests to New Zealand, but trapping and support from several businesses and community organisations has allowed them to recover in protected areas.

Stoats are the major cause for the decline in population, but thanks to the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation there is now 163km of control along northern Fiordland rivers that are keeping the birds safe and allowing their numbers to increase.

The project to raise and release the birds, which cost about $10,000, was funded by the wapiti foundation and supported by Southern Lakes Helicopters and Placemakers Te Anau.