I must say I'm quite baffled by seeing that Slimbridge have captive mandarin ducks as I'd personally much rather see a species of conservation concern in the collection given the WWT's history of breeding species like Nene for reintroduction.
I must say I'm very partial to Mandarins and have kept them myself but to see them in a WWT collection doesn't seem right to me.
@Prochilodus246 They appear to have a growing mix of animals that are fairly common for education purposes (the majority of the birds in the wetlands aviary fall into that category as well as these ducks elsewhere) and rarer birds for conservation with a general move to some more free flight aviaries for both. Places like Slimbridge now appear to have a fair number of visitors who don't venture beyond the captive collection, so an array of species is helpful to general education as a lot of people won't go out to see a wild one. I don't spend much time around the captive collection usually but I wanted to see how the screamer was getting on and the other captive pictures had sheltered viewing as it was throwing it down! Pretty birds though. The general message is more about the ecosystem of wetlands and waterways so all manner of birds are interesting for that.
