作为地球上古老的野鸭之一，中华秋沙鸭在地球上至少繁衍生息了1000多万年。目前，正值中华秋沙鸭繁殖季。长白山拥有典型的温带山地森林生态系统。每年3月，中华秋沙鸭从长江流域的越冬地北归，来到这里繁衍生息。

每到中华秋沙鸭繁殖孵化季，一种奇特的现象总会上演：雄鸭在完成交配后便悄然离去。

研究人员推测，雄鸭离开，一方面可能是为了避免自身艳丽的毛色引来天敌，另一方面可能是主动让出栖息地和食物资源，让母鸭和雏鸭能够有充足的生存空间。

吉林园池湿地国家级自然保护区巡护员孙良彬介绍，有些雄鸭会飞到水面更开阔的水域，例如松花江附近，那里食物比较充足。

另一种现象是，雏鸭跳巢离窝后，常会出现跨家庭合群的现象。不同家族的小鸭混在一起，由一只母鸭统一带领去觅食、活动，甚至会出现母鸭争抢雏鸭的行为。

东北师范大学生命科学学院在读博士研究生张晨解释道：“可能有些鸭妈妈的身体状况不太好，带不了这么多鸭宝宝，争抢时失败了。对于争抢到雏鸭的鸭妈妈来说，它的雏鸟的数量更多了，在面对外来捕食者的时候，它的鸭宝宝存活的概率就更大一些。”

除此之外，中华秋沙鸭超强的归巢本领也令人惊叹。跨越千里迁徙后，它们大多数能返回往年的巢穴进行繁衍。

张晨介绍道：“中华秋沙鸭的数量很少，我们不能对它进行环志或者采血之类的工作。通常来讲，中华秋沙鸭会沿用去年的旧巢箱，这样就省了寻找新巢箱的时间以及精力。如果它往年在这个巢箱繁殖成功，就说明这个巢箱可能没有被天敌发现，在这里继续繁殖可以保证繁殖成功率。”

Scaly-sided Mergansers Chronicle Changbai Mountain's Ecological Transformation

It is now the breeding season for scaly-sided mergansers. The Changbai Mountains feature a typical temperate mountain forest ecosystem. Every March, scaly-sided mergansers fly north from their winter habitats along the Yangtze River to live and breed here.

Every breeding and hatching season of scaly-sided mergansers witnesses a peculiar phenomenon: male scaly-sided mergansers leave quietly right after mating.

Scientists speculate the males leave mainly for two reasons. Their bright feathers could easily draw enemies. They also give up living areas and food, so females and babies have enough space to live.

Another phenomenon is that after young scaly-sided mergansers leave their nests, they often gather together across different families. Young scaly-sided mergansers from different groups stay together, and are led by one female scaly-sided merganser to find food and move around. Sometimes female scaly-sided mergansers even compete for young ones.

Zhang Chen, a doctoral student at Northeast Normal University, said, "Some female scaly-sided mergansers are in poor health and cannot raise too many young ones, so they fail in the competition. Those female scaly-sided mergansers that win more young ones have more offspring, which helps raise the survival chance of the young ones when facing natural enemies."

Besides, scaly-sided mergansers have amazing homing ability. After migrating thousands of miles, most of them can return to their old nests to breed.

Zhang Chen said: "The number of scaly-sided mergansers is very small, so we cannot carry out activities such as banding and blood collection on them. Generally speaking, scaly-sided mergansers will reuse old nest to save time and energy looking for new ones. If they successfully bred in a nest before, it means the place is safe from natural enemies, and staying here can ensure a higher breeding success rate."

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资料来源：央视新闻

编辑：管丽琼 校对：邓颐深 审核：何建