So I went to check up on my favourite duck family this arvo...
it was terribly disconcerting to see the family of 10 just 2 days ago had diminished to 5(!!)...I saw 2 parents, 3 chicks and 2 chick corpses :-p
What have I learnt? Ducks aren't exactly the best parents...especially the fathers- they just kinda sit off by themselves and the mother can't cope with so many all by herself! Just another case where the animal world reflects human life...don't have too many babies or you can't give them decent quality of care!
I knew I should have just shovelled up all 8 ducklings and stuck them in a safe box until they were big enough to not be kookaburra meat! :-..(
4 comments:
Those are some adorable ducklings =)
I'd comment more but i'm still sleeping. ^^
The main reason there's a very high predation rate among ducklings is that they leave the nest before they can fly, and that makes them easy pickings for lots of predators against which the parents can't defend them. The reason they have to do that is because ducks don't feed their chicks in the nest, as other birds do. As soon as the chicks are old enough to walk, they leap out of the nest and follow the parent bird(s) to water to get food. Many of them get taken even before they get there, which is why it makes sense for ducks to have big broods.
Must say, though, it's interesting that you saw two uneaten corpses. They were probably too weak to survive for some reason.
Thanks for the informative lesson David Attenborough ;)
I was seriously thinking last night if I had someone more in the know around I'd try to construct some kind of safe hidey hole for them to run into when big birds swoop by. I think that was the reason there were 2 corpses- that or the predators had already filled up on the 3 missing ones. So sad to have 8 little chirps crawling over my toes 2 days ago and then have that decimated by more than half! :( Yeah I never was very good at SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, lol that is just not me...
as to why I was born without a dog eat dog instinct like most people around me, I do not know...the curious thing to ponder is in a sense that is MORE evolved and in another that is LESS evolved!!! :P
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