Timeline for Why are certain baby (water)fowl yellow?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 18, 2018 at 16:45 | vote | accept | rook | ||
| Dec 17, 2018 at 16:27 | comment | added | Ilmari Karonen | @ArcaneEngineer: I did some Googling, and found a recent study that sheds some light on the genetic mechanism behind the white/yellow coloring of domestic ducks. It would seem that the adult plumage color and the brown plumage patterns in wild-type ducklings are controlled by the same gene, which is disabled by a mutation in white domestic ducks. The yellow base color in ducklings is apparently not controlled by this gene, though, so the ducklings end up yellow instead of white. No idea why that is so, though. | |
| Dec 17, 2018 at 16:23 | history | edited | Ilmari Karonen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 17, 2018 at 7:22 | comment | added | Engineer | Still doesn't give any specific answer to the chemistry of why a bird that will be white as an adult, is yellow as a baby. That is what I'd like to know. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 10:18 | comment | added | Rory M | Good to know that they're still alarmingly cute with their natural colourings though! | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 2:31 | history | answered | Ilmari Karonen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |