Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Think ducks are cute? This might change your mind
FoxNews.com ^ | July 03, 2017 | Arden Dier

Posted on 07/03/2017 2:12:35 PM PDT by ETL

Zoologist Silviu Petrovan of the University of Cambridge was birdwatching at a reservoir in Romania when he spotted a flock of mallards hunting a fledgling that had landed on the water.

A female duck grabbed the grey wagtail in her beak, dunked it several times beneath the water, then ate it, Petrovan says. A black redstart landed soon after and "was almost instantaneously attacked" by 10 juveniles, per the study in the journal Waterbirds.

Though mallards in California have been sighted munching on sand crabs, the ducks usually eat plants, insects, and the occasional small fish. As far as scientists can tell, such predatory behavior not involving fish or amphibians has never been seen before.

It's not only "very rare" but also likely a new phenomenon, says Petrovan, noting mallards have "not ... really evolved" to digest bones and feathers. "The mallard was massively struggling to eat that wagtail, presumably because it couldn't actually tear it to pieces" due to the design of its bill.

So why would a duck eat a bird at all? Petrovan suggests "pressure for those fast-growing juveniles to get animal protein intake."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last
To: ETL

A duck pond in spring is a place of gang rape. I saw many. One small female was repeatedly raped by a large number of males and ultimately, exhausted, drowned during rape.


21 posted on 07/03/2017 2:40:37 PM PDT by Savage Beast (You can drive coast to coast without ever crossing a district run by Democrats! MAGA = Renaissance!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL
which suggests such behaviour is both “very rare” and newly-learned.

Damn climate change.

22 posted on 07/03/2017 2:46:04 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Baby ducks are cute. Beyond that? Good eatin’.


23 posted on 07/03/2017 2:49:28 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: packrat35
I saw chickens eat frogs

No wonder they taste like frog legs.

24 posted on 07/03/2017 2:50:35 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ETL

It’s nature. Things eat other things.


25 posted on 07/03/2017 3:06:55 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The Golden Rule. Just that.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Mallard Studs 13?


26 posted on 07/03/2017 3:08:16 PM PDT by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

So even the ducks are confused and transpecied (transgendered)!

Maybe Fukushima is having a bad effect on all kinds of things.


27 posted on 07/03/2017 3:09:09 PM PDT by Boomer ("Based on the impotent shrieking of the Never Trump bedwetters"....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Image result for Baby ducks

Image result for Baby ducks

Image result for Baby ducks

Image result for Baby ducks

Image result for Baby ducks

28 posted on 07/03/2017 3:10:19 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

Image result for daffy duck eating

Image result for daffy duck eating

Image result for daffy duck eating

Image result for daffy duck eating

29 posted on 07/03/2017 3:10:37 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigersEye
This behavior has been known about for a long time.

Image result for daffy duck eating

Image result for daffy duck eating

30 posted on 07/03/2017 3:12:47 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Whoa! I just realized ... I’m a duck raised by a family of ducks.

I miss those big family Thanksgivings. lol


31 posted on 07/03/2017 3:26:44 PM PDT by TigersEye (Investigate the Awan brothers and Wasserman Schultz)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: ETL

I’m shocked!! You mean mother nature isn’t the cuddly, warm, kind creature all the econazis and leftist tell us it is??


32 posted on 07/03/2017 3:30:06 PM PDT by aquila48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigersEye

I’m sure global warming has something to do with it.


33 posted on 07/03/2017 3:32:27 PM PDT by aquila48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick
Remember when they first found out some years ago that dolphins were vicious killers, and, in the 70s via Jane Goodall’s research, that chimps attacked and actually ATE their own. They were in shock.
_____________________

Chimpanzees are natural born killers, study says, and they prefer mob violence

By Terrence McCoy
September 18, 2014

Few actions orchestrated in the animal kingdom are awarded a headline that would befit mankind. The chimpanzee, however, is the exception.

“Chimp leader assassinated by gang of underlings,” read the headline last year in New Scientist. It told the story of Pimu, who led his cohort of chimpanzees until a violent day in March last year when Pimu picked the wrong fight. Four chimpanzees appeared out of nowhere, according to New Scientist, and beat Pimu to death with their hands and feet. It was a grisly end for a species that, along with humans, are among the only animals to coordinate attacks on their own kind.

But such a murder was a natural action, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature. The paper, which analyzed data from 426 combined years of observation and 18 separate chimp sites, argues chimps are not driven to violence by their contacts with humans, which some scientists have previously contended. Chimps, rather, are natural born killers. ...”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/18/chimpanzees-are-natural-born-killers-study-says-and-they-prefer-mob-violence/?utm_term=.f2fb7a11257f
_____________________________________

Infant killing and cannibalism in free-living chimpanzees

Goodall Jane

Abstract:
Male chimpanzees at the Gombe National Park were twice seen to attack 'stranger' females and seize their infants. One infant was then killed and partially eaten: the other was 'rescued' and carried by three different males. Once several males were found eating a freshly killed 'stranger' infant. A similar event was observed in Uganda by Dr. Suzuki and Dr. Nishida reports an incident from the Mahali Mountains, Tanzania.

A different kind of killing occurred at Gombe when a female and her daughter killed and ate three infants of other females of the same community during a 2-year period. There is evidence suggesting that other infants may have died in this way. The paper draws attention to puzzling aspects of infant killing and cannibalism in chimpanzees.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/564321
_____________________________________

Chimpanzees overthrow, kill and then eat their tyrannical leader

The experienced anthropologist that led the study said she was left 'disturbed' by the behaviour

Andrew Griffin
February 2017

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/chimpanzees-chimp-tyrant-eat-cannibal-tyrannical-leader-a-propos-of-nothing-a7557916.html
______________________________

From the New York Times...

Evidence Puts Dolphins In New Light, As Killers

By WILLIAM J. BROAD
JULY 6, 1999

Everybody loves dolphins, those playful models of animal wisdom, celebrated for protecting shipwrecked sailors and spending their days frolicking happily in the waves. Movies, television and water shows feature their antics.

Nowadays, thousands of tourists swim with dolphins, captive and wild, with more signing up every day to commune with their animal intelligence. Most recently, a variety of organizations have sprung up that offer tours to places like the Florida Keys, the Azores and New Zealand, where participants can swim with wild dolphins and, brochures proclaim, experience emotional healing and spiritual awakening.

But scientists, following a trail of bloody clues, are discovering that dolphins are far from the happy, peaceful creatures that humans think they know.

Growing evidence shows that the big animals, up to 12 feet long, are killing fellow mammals in droves, wielding their beaks as clubs and slashing away with rows of sharp teeth. Dolphins have been found to bludgeon porpoises to death by the hundreds. Unlike most animal killers, which eat their prey, dolphins seem to have murderous urges unrelated to the need for food.
Continue reading the main story

They have even been observed in recurring acts of infanticide.

Off Scotland, a scientist watched in shock for nearly an hour as an adult dolphin repeatedly picked up a baby in its mouth and smacked it against the water, over and over, until it sank from view. ...”

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/06/health/evidence-puts-dolphins-in-new-light-as-killers.html?mcubz=2

34 posted on 07/03/2017 3:34:50 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: ETL

i forget. is it duck season, or wabbit season?


35 posted on 07/03/2017 3:42:54 PM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Speaking of cartoons...there was this hilarious Tom and Jerry short I remember. Tom was picking on the baby duck, trying to eat it, until he got caught by the Mama duck. Then Tom slaps the Mama duck. She cries “Hennnnrrry!” This muscular duck Dad comes in and starts kicking Tom’s @ss. ROFL! What was really hilarious is how the Mama duck described the incident to the Dad duck - speaking like a duck of course.


36 posted on 07/03/2017 3:43:17 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Man-made global liberalism is killing the planet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ETL
Is that a turkey caucus on Daffy's table??

The turkey caucus is a large group of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

I wish they were less chicken and more like ducks.

37 posted on 07/03/2017 3:53:36 PM PDT by seowulf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Psssst. Pic with the goat is a baby gosling. But...awfully cute pics. Thanks!


38 posted on 07/03/2017 4:10:06 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: ETL

39 posted on 07/03/2017 4:24:22 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

40 posted on 07/03/2017 4:31:14 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson