The Americas Highlights Superheated Rivers of the Andes & the Super Ducks Who Live There
Torrent ducks have to survive freezing temperatures on land and extreme heat in the water. Learn all about it on The Americas.
On The Americas, you can find some of the wildest plants and animals in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. From natural stories happening in your own backyard to rarely seen dramas unfolding in remote locations, The Americas takes viewers on an epic 10-episode journey across the American supercontinent.
In the most recent episode we visited the Andes, a sprawling mountain range known as the spine of South America. It stretches approximately 5,500 miles from the southern tip of Chile to the equatorial landscapes of Ecuador. It’s a world filled with more than 200 active volcanoes, mountain climbing bears, hummingbirds locked in aerial combat, and superpower ducks swimming in boiling rivers.
In the Andes, heat resistant ducks live in the waters of a boiling river
In addition to a diversity of plants and animals, the Andes are home to 99% of the world’s tropical glaciers, vast stores of frozen fresh water. In the warm season some of the glacier melts and flows down the mountains, creating a vast network of approximately 100,000 glacial rivers.
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It should be no surprise that most of these glacial rivers are nearly ice cold, having recently melted from high-altitude glacial ice. But one of those rivers offers one of the most extreme river environments on Earth.
In Argentina, underground geothermal activity superheats a rushing river nearly to boiling. You might think the scalding water would keep animals at bay, but these riverways are home to the superpowered torrent duck.
Equipped with heat-resistant feathers, armored skin, and a transparent third eyelid which serves as protective eyewear, torrent ducks can survive freezing temperatures of -13 Fahrenheit on land and 122 Fahrenheit in the water. They have to survive those temperatures in order to get to their favorite food, bundles of caddis fly developing on the river bottom.
Everything you need to know about the superpowered torrent duck
Known as Merganetta armata to scientists, the appropriately named torrent duck is a striking example of evolution's adaptive power. Torrent ducks have evolved toward higher concentrations of myoglobin, a protein which helps to hold oxygen in muscle tissue. They also have approximately twice the concentration of hemoglobin of humans, raising the amount of oxygen they can hold in their bodies overall. Those adaptations help torrent ducks survive and dive for extended periods in their low-oxygen, high-altitude environment.
Adults lay clutches of three to four eggs which they typically incubate for 44 days. They begin life as cute but ordinary looking ducklings equipped to deal with their extreme environment almost as soon as they hatch. Their tail feathers develop early and, in combination with oversized feet, help them to navigate slippery rocks and rushing waters. Buoyant downy feathers help to insulate them and keep them afloat.
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Those same feathers make it difficult for them to reach their grubby food at the river bottom, so they have to travel to shallower waters. Adults can fly part of the way (though they don’t like to) but the babies have to ride the river. It’s a dangerous lifestyle with only one-third of ducklings surviving to adulthood.
By that time, they develop striking plumage. Males have white heads with black eye and neck stripes and black or gray feathers on the rest of the body. Females are rust colored or dark gray. Additionally, adults grow stiff tail feathers and large webbed feet which help them keep steady on the rocks. In adulthood, the ducks leave home and strike out on their own. They mostly keep to their own families, with a pair of ducks (and their ducklings) occupying their own stretch of steaming river.
Where to watch The Americas
New episodes of The Americas air weekly Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC, and stream on Peacock the following day!
