Matt Fact #6
Ducks really are quite remarkable things - by rights, they should be extinct. If one applies even the most basic Darwinian principles to the species, they should have died out æons ago. They are stupid, ungainly, and are not naturally designed to survive in their own environment. They make terrible parents, and lack any instincts to care for their offspring.
When ducklings first hatch, they don't naturally float. Although a newly hatched duckling is fairly light, it will still break the surface tension of the water and sink. Basically, their feathers lack the ability to trap air when first hatched, and of course, the first thing the female duck (technically called a hen, but that's just confusing) wants to do is lead the brood back to the safety of the water. Inevitably, some of the ducklings will drown when they become exhausted from having to maintain their position in the water.
Add to this the fact that a duckling is incapable of righting itself when it falls over - much like a tortoise, it will lie on its back until it tires out and dies, or is picked off by a predator. The mother duck (the drake takes no part in raising the ducklings, by the way. Personally I suspect that by the time the eggs hatch, he's forgotten taking any part in their conception...) will not stop to wait for a fallen duckling - it will immediately be abandoned to look after itself. Also, if the ducklings get in her way, she will often trample to death, thus dispatching yet more of her brood.
To call the female duck a careless mother doesn't really do her justice. She will happily lead her brood over any unsuitable terrain she can find, leaving the odd duckling here and there stuck up to the neck in wet mud, or trapped behind insurmountable obstacles (i.e. anything larger than a matchbox). If she leads them out onto open ground, their "camouflage" (bright yellow with brown patches) is eye catching to anything with decent depth perception and colour vision (such as your common or garden crow/jackdaw/magpie). Easy prey that can't walk fast, fly, or defend itself.
In fact, they are such ludicrous creatures, there's even a species of duck in the Amazonian rainforest that nests exclusively in trees. Ducks can't climb trees. They don't even have the right kind of feet to cling onto branches.
So, next time you see a duck consider this - the fact that it exists at all is down to pure dumb luck. Stupid they may be. Challenged, even, in evolutionary terms. Nevertheless, they must be among the luckiest creatures on the planet.
When ducklings first hatch, they don't naturally float. Although a newly hatched duckling is fairly light, it will still break the surface tension of the water and sink. Basically, their feathers lack the ability to trap air when first hatched, and of course, the first thing the female duck (technically called a hen, but that's just confusing) wants to do is lead the brood back to the safety of the water. Inevitably, some of the ducklings will drown when they become exhausted from having to maintain their position in the water.
Add to this the fact that a duckling is incapable of righting itself when it falls over - much like a tortoise, it will lie on its back until it tires out and dies, or is picked off by a predator. The mother duck (the drake takes no part in raising the ducklings, by the way. Personally I suspect that by the time the eggs hatch, he's forgotten taking any part in their conception...) will not stop to wait for a fallen duckling - it will immediately be abandoned to look after itself. Also, if the ducklings get in her way, she will often trample to death, thus dispatching yet more of her brood.
To call the female duck a careless mother doesn't really do her justice. She will happily lead her brood over any unsuitable terrain she can find, leaving the odd duckling here and there stuck up to the neck in wet mud, or trapped behind insurmountable obstacles (i.e. anything larger than a matchbox). If she leads them out onto open ground, their "camouflage" (bright yellow with brown patches) is eye catching to anything with decent depth perception and colour vision (such as your common or garden crow/jackdaw/magpie). Easy prey that can't walk fast, fly, or defend itself.
In fact, they are such ludicrous creatures, there's even a species of duck in the Amazonian rainforest that nests exclusively in trees. Ducks can't climb trees. They don't even have the right kind of feet to cling onto branches.
So, next time you see a duck consider this - the fact that it exists at all is down to pure dumb luck. Stupid they may be. Challenged, even, in evolutionary terms. Nevertheless, they must be among the luckiest creatures on the planet.