Radjah Shelduck (Rajah rajah) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

Taxonomy

• Previously placed in the genus Tadorna (Carboneras and Kirwan 2018)

Nomenclature

• Genus/species: radjah
  • Hindi for “king” or “ruler” (Marchant and Higgins 1990)
    • Word originated in India and spread to Malay
  • Radjah Shelduck may be named for its regal appearance or possibly is an Indian name for a duck (Marchant and Higgins 1990)

Synonyms

• Tadorna radjah (Phillips 1922; Carboneras and Kirwan 2018; Frith 1967)
• Tadorna radjah flindersi (Phillips 1922)
• Anas radjah (Garnot 1826, Phillips 1922; Marchant and Higgins 1990; Carboneras and Kirwan 2018)

Common names

• Raja Shelduck, White-headed Shelduck, Burdekin Shelduck (English) (Pizzey 2012; Pratt and Beehler 2014; Carboneras and Kirwan 2018)
  • Phillips (1922) also uses the name “White Duck” from northwest Australia
    • Subspecies: Moluccan Radjah Shelduck, Australian Radjah Shelduck (Johnstone 1968); Red-backed Radjah Shelduck, Black-backed Radjah Shelduck (e.g., Callaghan and Green 1993)
  • In old texts, shelduck referred to as “sheldrake” (Phillips 1922)
• Tadorne radjah, casarca radjah, sarcelle des Malais (French) (Phillips 1922; Johnsgard 2010a; Carboneras and Kirwan 2018)
• Tarro raja, Radjah gans (German) (Phillips 1922; Carboneras and Kirwan 2018)
• Oca rajá (Spanish) (Johnsgard 2010a)

Other local names

(Phillips 1922)

• Australia
  • Comerdo
  • Mahdo or Mardo
• Aru Islands
  • Bursil
  • Birgual
• Anda Island
  • Umukia

Fossil history and evolutionary relationships

• Anatidae (ducks, geese, swans) and Dendrocygnidae (whistling ducks) diverged about 35 Ma (Eocene) (Sun et al. 2017)
• Ducks (Anatidae)
  • Rapid and recent diversification, especially during the Plio-Pleistocene (Sun et al. 2017)
• Rajah forms a paraphyletic clade with Tadorna (Sun et al. 2017; Fig. 2, Clade D)

Closest living (extant) relatives

(Worthy 2009; Sun et al. 2017, except as noted)

• Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca)
  • Sun et al. (2017) propose this species be placed in genus Tadorna
• Shelducks (Tadorna spp.)
  • Livezey (1997) suggests Radjah Shelduck and Common Shelduck are closely related (based on morphology)

Culture and folklore

• Aboriginal peoples of Australia
  • Radjah Shelduck eggs hunted in northwestern Australia (Phillips 1922)
• Other notes on historical sport hunting
  • Meat described as “coarse and of an unpleasant flavor” (Phillips 1922)
  • Frith (1967) comments: “The Burdekin Duck [Radjah Shelduck] is not considered a good game duck by true sportsmen. It is very tame and slow-flying and its flesh is coarse and of low quality. … Although it is still moderately common in remote areas it is very vulnerable to shooting, being local in habits, sedentary, and easily shot.”

Art

• Paintings and illustrations
  • Radjah Sheldrake, Common Sheldrake by Louis Agassiz Fuentes, A Natural History of Ducks, Volume 1 (Plate 16) (Phillips 1922)
  • Casarca tadornoides (Eyton) Chestnut coloured Sheldrake, Tadorna radjah (Eyton) Radjah Sheldrake by G. J. Broinowski, The Birds of Australia, Vol II (Plate II) (Broinowski 1890)
  • Tadornah radjah (Radjah Sheldrake), Companion to Gould’s Handbook (Plate [75]) (Diggles 1877)
  • White-headed Shelduck by John Gould (Gould and Rutgers 1967)
  • Sarcelle des Malais (Anas radjah, N.), Voyage autour du monde (Plate [49]) (Duperrey 1825)
• Postage stamps
  • Australia, Indonesia, Grenada

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Anseriformes (Wagler, 1831) — ducks, geese, swans, screamers, waterfowl

Family: Anatidae — ducks, geese, swans

Genus: Radjah (Reichenbach, 1853)

Species: Radjah radjah (Lesson, 1828) — Radjah Shelduck

Subspecies: R. r. radjah (Lesson, 1828) — Moluccas Islands, New Guinea, Indonesia, and nearby islands
Subspecies: R. r. rufitergum (E. J. O. Hartert, 1905) — northern and eastern tropical Australia

Sources: Carboneras and Kirwan (2018), Gill and Donsker (2018)

An illustration of a Radjah Shelduck and two Common Shelducks by Louis Agassiz Fuentes (1922).

Plate 16 in John C. Phillip's A Natural History of Ducks, Volume 1 (1922).

Image credit: Made available by Biodiversity Heritage Library (contributed to BHL by Smithsonian Libraries). Book images: Public domain. Flickr image: Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).