{"id":90025,"date":"2026-08-24T13:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=90025"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:42:08","slug":"smew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/smew\/","title":{"rendered":"Smew"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Smew Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assam\u2019s Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary recently recorded the Smew (Mergellus albellus), a rare migratory waterbird, for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Smew<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>medium-sized duck<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> belonging to the family Anatidae.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Mergellus albellus<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Smew <\/b><b>Habitat and Distribution<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The smew species <\/span><b>breed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the <\/span><b>northern taiga of Europe and Asia.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>winter <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in sheltered coasts or inland lakes of the<\/span><b> Baltic Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Black Sea, Great Britain, Caspian Sea, East China, Korea and Japan.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The smew is an<\/span><b> occasional visitor <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the<\/span><b> Indian Subcontinent.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The smew species <\/span><b>inhabit freshwater lakes, reservoirs, flooded woods,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ice-free <\/span><b>rivers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, sheltered bays, estuaries, lagoons and tidal creeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Smew <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is characterized by its <\/span><b>distinctive narrow bill with toothlike edges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>hooked tip<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, adapted<\/span><b> for catching fish.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> male is white <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a<\/span><b> black mask and a black back<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>female is grey<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a <\/span><b>reddish-brown head and white cheek.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In flight<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it shows <\/span><b>black and white wings.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>forages by diving from the surface<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It is able to swim underwater when pursuing prey.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Smew <\/b><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is classified as &#8216;<b>Least Concern<\/b>&#8216; under the IUCN Red List<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is located on the <\/span><b>southern part of the Brahmaputra River <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the Nagaon District of <\/span><b>Assam<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It forms an integral part of the<\/span><b> Laokhowa-Burachapori ecosystem<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is a notified <\/span><b>buffer of the Kazairanga Tiger Reserve.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>part of the Brahmaputra valley.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sanctuary is <\/span><b>surrounded by human-dominated areas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on all sides except for the north.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Flora<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The vegetation composition of Laokhowa can be broadly categorized into <\/span><b>alluvial grassland, alluvial forest, moist\u00a0 deciduous forest, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>tropical semi-evergreen<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> forest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Fauna<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sanctuary is home to the <\/span><b>great Indian-one horned rhinoceros<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, elephants, royal Bengal tigers, Asiatic water buffaloes and more than 225 species of birds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of the birds spotted here are the<\/span><b> spot-billed pelican, little and large cormorant,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> egret, open-billed stork, brahminy kite, pond heron, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatodayne.in\/assam\/story\/assams-laokhowa-records-first-ever-sighting-of-rare-migratory-smew-1441648-2026-08-23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smew is a small diving duck formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Read more about Smew, Habitat and Distribution, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":90053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5737],"class_list":["post-90025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-smew","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90025"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120811,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90025\/revisions\/120811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}