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Conservation status | |
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Other names |
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Country of origin | China |
Distribution | Europe |
Use | meat |
Traits | |
Weight |
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Egg colour | white or tinted |
Classification | |
EE | yes [2] |
PCGB | heavy [3] |
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The German Pekin, German : Deutsche Pekingente, is a European breed of domestic duck. It is commonly called simply Pekin or White Pekin. [4] [5] It is a different breed from the American Pekin, which is also commonly known by the same names. It was bred in Europe from birds originating in China and Japan and is distributed in many European countries. [2] [4]
The mallard was probably domesticated in China before 1000 AD. [6] : 92 Force-feeding of ducks is documented from the tenth century, under the Five Dynasties. [7] : 593 Chinese people were sophisticated breeders of ducks. [6] : 92 Among several breeds they created was one named shi-chin-ya-tze, or roughly "ten-pound duck". [8]
In 1872 some birds of this type were imported to the United Kingdom by Walter Steward; [8] others were taken to the United States by James E. Palmer, where they gave rise to the American Pekin breed. [6] : 92 Some soon reached Germany from the UK, possibly via France. [9] [10]
In Germany the Chinese ducks were cross-bred with upright white ducks brought from Japan by Dutch ships, resulting in birds with a steep body angle; those taken to the United States were crossed with Aylesbury birds, which led to birds with a more horizontal stance. [8] In Britain as in Germany, breeders in the early twentieth century tended to select for an upright body position. The modern British breed derives mostly from birds imported from Germany from about 1970. [10]
The German Pekin is listed as "seriously endangered" in the Rote Liste of the Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen, a German national association for the conservation of historic and endangered domestic animal breeds. [11] In the United Kingdom it is considered "vulnerable". [12]
The Pekin is heavily feathered; the plumage is creamy white with a yellowish tinge. [8] [10] The beak is short and orange-coloured. [10] The body is broad and heavy, and is held almost vertical. In the United Kingdom, drakes weigh approximately 4.1 kg and ducks about 3.6 kg, [13] : 438 while in Germany drakes weigh approximately 3.5 kg and ducks about 3 kg. [14]
The Pekin was intended to be a table bird, reared for its meat. In Germany it has not been kept for agricultural production since about the time of the Second World War, and is a show bird. [9] Ducks lay about 80 eggs per year; the eggs weigh approximately 80 g. [14]
The Dülmener or Dülmen is a German breed of small feral horse. It was formerly known as the Merfelderbrücher. A herd of approximately 300 head lives in feral conditions in an area of about 3.5 km2 in the Merfelder Bruch, near the town of Dülmen in the Kreis of Coesfeld in north-western Nordrhein-Westfalen, in north-western Germany.
The Pekin or White Pekin is an American breed of domestic duck, raised primarily for meat. It derives from birds brought to the United States from China in the nineteenth century, and is now bred in many parts of the world. It is often known as the American Pekin to distinguish it from the German Pekin, a distinct and separate breed which derives from the same Chinese stock but has different breeding. Many of these ducks were reared on Long Island, New York, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from which the breed derived its name Long Island Duck.
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The Bergische Kräher is a German breed of domestic chicken from the Bergisches Land, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is named for its unusually long crow, up to five times as long as that of other breeds, and belongs to the group of long-crowing chicken breeds, which are found from south-east Europe to the Far East.
The Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen or GEH is a German national association for the conservation of historic and endangered domestic animal breeds.
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