Aaaaactually - they were further talking about it. (It was a 2.5 hour podcast.)
If you shoot a mallard in Massachusetts, it's almost certainly a farm raised duck vintage. "Wild" mallards were in such few #'s back "in teh day" that hunt club ducks were being used. They continue to be used in places like New Jersey. They aren't good ducks. Long legs, short wings. But it's all we have b/c we didn't have a decent population to begin with after the market-hunting of the late 1800's. The fear is that the hunt club ducks (who also suck at water foraging b/c they evolved to better handle grain spread in a pen) are spreading to the central flyway. It's creating issues there as the ducks aren't good travelers and also are more random in their migration, based on telemetry data.
It was a fascinating podcast. At some point, I'll have my S-word together and set up on my river land to bag a few. I thought last year this year would be the year. Nope. Maybe next year. LOL
And my original statement is that all DOMESTIC ducks are mallard-cousins. Peking. Etc, Everyone who bred domestic ducks for meat or eggs ended up using mallards as their mother species. World wide.