Koloa Maoli Hawaiian Ducks Are One Duck Less on Magnum's Sudden Death

Summary: Koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks are one duck less on Magnum's Sudden Death Oct. 22, 2018, re-aired Sept. 1, 2019, and on Oahu, where Magnum and they abide.

male (left) and female (right) koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks; Oct. 4, 2011, photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks are one duck less on Magnum's Sudden Death crime action drama television series episode Oct. 22, 2018, re-aired Aug. 30, 2019, and on Oahu, where they are endangered.

Director David Grossman and writer Peter Lenkov build Season One's fifth episode around a single-parent suspect, Hani Iona (Sam Puefua), and his son Makoa (Zion Junk). Private investigator Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and helicopter tour owner-operator Theodore Calvin (Stephen Hill) conduct Makoa to the former's Robin's Nest residence during Hani's pretrial incarceration. Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks), Robin's Nest majordomo (from Latin maior, "main" and domo, "of household"), decides upon a duck dish as deliciously nutritious for a youngster.

Teuila Tuileta (Amy Hill), as Kumu (from Hawaiian kumu, "teacher") and Robin's Nest curator, elects grilled cheese sandwiches as more enticing and perhaps more ecologically sustainable.

The Anatidae (from Latin anas, "duck" and -idæ from Greek -ειδής, "resembling") waterbird family member fits year-round breedability, nestability, parentability into six- to seven-year-long life cycles.

The duck, goose, swan member of the Anseriformes (from Latin ānser, "goose" and -formis, "-shaped") magpie goose, screamer and waterfowl order gestates generally December through May. Physically and sexually mature one-year-old and one-plus-year-old females have two to 10 hatchlings after harboring their clutches for four weeks in breast-feather and down-lined, ground-level nests. Koloa maoli (from Hawaiian koloa, "duck" and maoli, "native") hatchlings initiate swimming almost immediately after hatching and bursting, direct, fast, strong flight patterns as nine-week-olds.

Koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks, judged taxonomically by Philip Sclater (Nov. 4, 1827-June 27, 1913), journey through the 50th state's low wetlands, river valleys and mountain streams.

The Hawaiian endemic (among one's own people only, from Greek ἐν, "in" and δῆμος, "people") keeps to freshwater wetlands through 7,000-foot (2,133.6-meter) altitudes above sea level.

All ages and both genders of the island-hopper labeled Anas wyvilliana (for Sir Charles Wyville Thompson, March 5, 1830-March 10, 1882) scientifically look mallard-like and mottled. Adult females and males respectively manifest 15.5- to 17-inch- (40- to 43-centimeter-) and 19- to 20-inch (48- to 51-centimeter-) long, 16-ounce (460-gram) and 21.3-ounce (604-gram) bodies. They net 38- to 45-inch (97- to 114-centimeter) wingspans, with blue-green, white-bordered speculum (from Latin speculum, “mirror”) flight-feathers nestled over secondary-wing feathers on pointed wings.

Koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks offer black eyes; black-green, spatulate bills, occasionally orange-tipped in females; brown-gray crowns, foreheads and napes; brown-white, buff-white throats; and black-marked, brown-white undersides.

Adult females and males present black-mottled brown, buff, gray uppersides; orange legs and feet; and fan-shaped tails with black-mottled, brown, buff upper-tail and brown-white under-tail feathers.

Adults quest crayfish and other crustaceans, earthworms, larval mosquitoes and other aquatic invertebrates, mosquito fish, snails and other molluscs, tadpoles; grass seeds, green algae and rice. They resemble mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), albeit darker and smaller, without black curled tail feathers and green heads, when they release, albeit more softly, quack-quack-quack sounds. Avian botulism, development-degraded and lost habitats, fuel and oil spills, hunting, hybridization with mallard ducks, introduced plants and predators and sea-rising climate change stress their populations.

Curlews, pintails, plovers, sanderlings, scaups, shovelers, tattlers, turnstones, wigeons; cattails, fleabane, hyacinth and mangrove threaten koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks on Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui, Ni’ihau and O’ahu.

Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and lawyer Vanessa Nero (Cyndi Lauper) in Magnum PI's Sudden Death (season 1 episode 5): What2Vue @What2Vue, via Twitter Oct. 12, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

male (left) and female (right) koloa maoli Hawaiian ducks; Oct. 4, 2011, photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NRCSHI03027_-_Hawaii_(2119)(NRCS_Photo_Gallery).tif

Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and lawyer Vanessa Nero (Cyndi Lauper) in Magnum PI's Sudden Death (season 1 episode 5): What2Vue @What2Vue, via Twitter Oct. 12, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/What2Vue/status/1050785669545639936

For further information:

"Focal Species: Hawaiian Duck or Koloa (Anas wyvilliana)." Hawaiian Bird Conservation Action Plan. October 2012.
Available @ https://pacificrimconservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Koloa.pdf

"Hawaiian Duck Anas wyvilliana." eBird > Anseriformes > Anatidae.
Available @ https://ebird.org/species/hawduc

"Hawaiian (=Koloa) Duck (Anas wyvilliana." U.S. Fish and Wiildlife Service > ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System > Species Profile.
Available @ https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/7712

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 February 2019. "Makou Hawaiian Buttercups Add No Aconitine to Magnum's I, the Deceased." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/02/makou-hawaiian-buttercups-add-no.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 November 2018. "Makiawa Hawaiian Sardines Appease Magnum PI's The Cat Who Cried Wolf." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/makiawa-hawaiian-sardines-appease.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 October 2018. "Hawaiian Dolphinfish Mahi-Mahi Abide by Magnum PI's From the Head Down." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/hawaiian-dolphinfish-mahi-mahi-abide-by.html

Mitch Waite Group. WhatBird.com > Field Guide to Birds of North America > Species Overview > Hawaiian Duck. Copyright 2002-2013.
Available @ https://identify.whatbird.com/obj/1182/identification/Hawaiian_Duck.aspx

Pyle, R.L.; and P. Pyle. 1 January 2017. "Hawaiian Duck Anas wyvilliana." In: The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands: Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status. Honolulu HI: B.P. Bishop Museum. Version 2. http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlpmonograph/.
Available @ http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-monograph/pdfs/01-Anatidae/HAWD.pdf

Sclater, Philip Lutley. 1878. "11. Anas wyvilliana Scl. (Pl. XXII.)." Page 98. In: "Part VIII. Report on the Birds Collected During the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger in the Years 1873-1876." Pages 1-149. In: Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76 Under the Command of Captain George S. Nares, R.N., F.R.S. And Captain Frank Turle Thomson, R.N. Prepared Under the Superintendence of Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, Knt., F.R.S., &c. Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff on Board. Zoology - Vol. II. Edinburgh [Scotland]: Neill and Company, for Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=LZJBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA98

Sclater, Philip Lutley. 19 March 1878. "11. Anas wyvilliana, sp. nov." Pages 350-351. In: "2. Reports on the Collections of Birds Made During the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Challenger'. - No. VIII. On the Birds of the Sandwich Islands. Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1878. London [England]: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28511576

"Sudden Death." Magnum PI: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Oct. 22, 2018.

What2Vue @What2Vue. "CBS released Promotional Photos of Magnum P.I. episode 'Sudden Death' (1.05) https://what2vue.com/2018/10/12/promotional-photos-of-magnum-p-i-episode-5-sudden-death/ #MagnumPI." Twitter. Oct. 12, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/What2Vue/status/1050785669545639936