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 ...
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.
Damn climate change.
Baby ducks are cute. Beyond that? Good eatin’.
No wonder they taste like frog legs.
It’s nature. Things eat other things.
Mallard Studs 13?
So even the ducks are confused and transpecied (transgendered)!
Maybe Fukushima is having a bad effect on all kinds of things.
Whoa! I just realized ... I’m a duck raised by a family of ducks.
I miss those big family Thanksgivings. lol
I’m shocked!! You mean mother nature isn’t the cuddly, warm, kind creature all the econazis and leftist tell us it is??
I’m sure global warming has something to do with it.
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
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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
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Andrew Griffin
February 2017
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/chimpanzees-chimp-tyrant-eat-cannibal-tyrannical-leader-a-propos-of-nothing-a7557916.html
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From the New York Times...
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
i forget. is it duck season, or wabbit season?
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.
The turkey caucus is a large group of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
I wish they were less chicken and more like ducks.
Psssst. Pic with the goat is a baby gosling. But...awfully cute pics. Thanks!
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