To continue with a theme, I love nature. I currently live in an apartment complex with a series of interconnected artificial ponds. Animal life abounds; on land there are squirrels, cardinals, blue jays, lizards, and doves (and stray cats). In the pond, there are turtles, fish, and several ducks.
So, the other day, it was with pleasure that I noticed that the ducks had produced offspring. There were eight mottled baby ducks, swimming away in the pond in front of my apartment.
The next day, however, there were only seven.
A neighbor informed me that he had witnessed a stray cat mauling one of the babies to death. He had attempted to prevent this slaughter, but he is in his 70s, and was therefore not quick enough to stop it.
Now, I love cats in general, but I am not too fond of strays. These feral creatures are of no use as pets, and they butcher other wildlife for either food or the sheer fun of it.
Well, this development was disconcerting enough to me. But just two days later, there are no baby ducks left. None. Zero.
I cannot account for this. Surely one or two dead ducklings per week would be understandable. That is simply nature at work. The offspring of such creatures have a very high mortality rate.
But seven gone in two days? What could have caused this?
There are not enough stray cats in the area to account for this avian genocide. Could a car have crushed them all? Unlikely. Though I have witnessed baby ducks crushed under the tires of automobiles in the past, surely not all seven would have died at once. And also, these particular ducks are very wary of other human beings and loud noises. I suspect they would have fled from any approaching vehicle.
So, it's a mystery to me, what became of these young birds. All I know is that they are gone, dead. A sad thing, no question.
But a true naturalist must accept these losses and move on. I will continue to feed the various rodents, lizards, birds, and aquatic life around my apartment. But there will be less bread offered tomorrow, because there are fewer tiny mouths left to feed.
Article comments
1 - Dawn
That is like the sweetest thing I have ever read. You just completely shattered my view of you RJ, but on the other hand again you went up about ten points on my cool-o-meter for liking cute little duckies.
2 - RJ
Heh. Thanks Dawn.
I guess I'm getting sentimental in my "old" age. I have only one grandparent left; a couple of my uncles have died recently; one of my cats has full-blown cancer.
When you hit your mid-20s, you begin to realize that, while you personally may have a lot of time left on this earth, loved ones who once seemed so strong and full of vitality do not. And then death becomes something other than a thing you only talk about after watching the latest horror flick; it becomes a part of your life.
Animal lovers deal with this even more, because of their close relationship with creatures who live relatively short life spans, especially in the wild.
But, on the plus side, I will presumably be better able to deal with my own eventual demise because of my close understanding of the life-and-death cycle that other members of the animal kingdom face.
There is sorrow in every life snuffed out, particularly those that are ended before their time. (I could go off on a tangent about abortion right now, but I won't.)
The fact is, once we are born, we are doomed to die. This goes for humans just as much as it goes for little baby ducklings.
I mourn this loss. But I cannot dweel upon too much, because there is stil so much life left, both in me, and in the environment around me.
3 - RJ
dweel = dwell
stil = still
4 - Rickriprock
I'm not real fond of old people. Perhaps you could place your last grandparent out by the pond and see if a feral cat will make a meal of him/her since there are no ducklings left. :O)
5 - Dawn
Such class RRR, you must make your parents so proud. Unless of course they were old and you killed them.
6 - Rickriprock
Actually, I did. Now tell me....where is it you live?
7 - Dave Nalle
I've got two ducks too right now. Young indian runners. My past experience where we live is that while cats are a problem, the bigger problems are foxes and raccoons. Do you have either of those in your area, RJ?
BTW, the best solution for ducks or geese is to raise them really close to your dogs and encourage the dogs to become attached to them and protect them. We kept a goose alive 3 years by convincing it that it was one of the dogs. The problem is that when waterfowl get ready to lay they like privacy, so she kept nesting far away from the house and eventually a coyote got her.
Dave
8 - Rickriprock
I was just trying to interject a little humor into this otherwise sad blog. I am an old fart myself and am very happy to have Social Security around. Wish you the best of luck that it is still around when you get there. Peace.
9 - RJ
"Do you have either of those in your area, RJ?"
Certainly no foxes. And while I have not seen any coons, It's likely there are around...
10 - Dawn
RRR, Try a little harder to be funny, you were unsuccessful and kind of really sort of pissed me off, with each subsequent statement.
11 - Dave Nalle
My first chicken ever - when I was 7 was killed by a Raccoon. Since then I've learned their ways. They're very smart and can actually open latches and get inside wire pens to get to chicks.
I've learned not to become too attached to my fowl, however. I've had them killed by - Foxes, Coyotes, Skunks, Cats, Dogs, Raccoons, Snakes and the kid we had housesit for us once who left the coop door open - killing my best laying hens ever.
Right now all I have is the two ducks, but I'm waiting to receive a set of Russian Orloffs - vicious killer chickens who I think will do well in our somewhat dangerous environment.
Dave
12 - RJ
"vicious killer chickens"
LOL!
If you translate that into Spanish, it sounds like you own two very attractive serial killers! ;-)
13 - HW Saxton
"Russian Orloff"? Sounds like a wrestler
to me and not a chicken. More seriously
though, are they like Guinea hens,used
to keep away rodents and such from the
hen houses?
14 - Dave Nalle
They's similar in coloration to Guineas, but much smarter and faster moving. Supposedly good foragers.
Dave
15 - Mihos
Ducklings do vanish rapidly don't they?
It is something difficult to explain to the toddlers every spring. We have a large pond and maintain a mixed waterfowl flock with geese, ducks and swans.
While feral cats, raccoons and cars are all guilty of predation i find that the biggest threat come from under the water itself.
Snapping turtles, bullfrogs and large fish are capable of pulling the ducklings to their deaths.
Mallards are R selected species and tend to produce huge clutches to deal with the number of predators waiting for the hatch out.
Geese tend to do better as the parents rarely take them into deep water sticking to the pastures with creeks and
ditches.
Muscovy ducks are also r selected ecological species but the parents tend to keep the ducklings in a swamp or marsh until they are sizeable enough to head out onto the neck.
16 - bhw
Dead ducklings ≠ funny.
Rickiprock = funny!
17 - Antfreeze
I was golfing once and saw a mother goose going ape shit at the waters edge. I went to see what was going on and when I looked into about 2 feet of water I could just see two little gosling feet sticking straight up. A snapping turtle had it by the head. Game over.
18 - Mihos
Its an interesting conundrum really.
In artificial landscapes, the predators of the secondary predators like racoons, snapping turtles and opposums are extirpated or excluded, so their numbers soar and the balance between the new dominant predator and the bipedal prey makes me think about the last days of the dinosaurs when bipedal running therapod ancestors of birds were predated upon by quadruped ancestors of reptiles.
19 - RJ
UPDATE!
I have no idea where they were hiding, but five of the baby ducks have made a recent appearance in front of my apartment!
Bad news: This means that three of them are definitely dead.
Good news: They aren't ALL dead!
20 - kelley
i have mallard duck eggs someone told me to put them in warm water to see if they float because if they float that means theres a baby inside so my daughter put the 9 duck eggs in water they all floated then she heard them chirping so i was woundering how can that be when there still in the egg
21 - Lora
RJ this too is happening at my apartment complex and recently a duck produced two babies and I'm afraid of the cats or snapping turtles are going to get them. Any suggestions? Today I had to pull them out of the pool because they followed their mother in there. Unfortunately they can only tread water for so long and unlike the pond there is nothing for them to latch onto to get out. I've witnessed this before, but in the fountain, and unfortunately I didn't make it in time and he had drowned.
22 - RJ Elliott
I wish I had some advice for you, Lora. Unfortunately, I don't. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. :-/
23 - Caroline
RJ, I take care of my neighbors garden and pool while he is on vacation. I noticed about a week ago that there was a mother duck and eight ducks living in his pool. Today I was watering some plants, and I noticed that the ducks were not moving. I soon saw three ducks on their side, covered in flies. Next to one of the ducks was one duck who was still alive, but making little yelping noises an dswimming frantically. I was wondering where the other ducks were, so I opened the skimmer. RJ, the mother duck and three baby ducks were dead on their sides. One other duck was still alive but was surrounded by the mother and other dead duckies. RJ, what could have caused this? I ruled out an animal attack as none had scars. I figured maybe something happened to the mother, and the babies could not get food? Or maybe there was some chemical in the pool they drank? If anybody has any ideas what happened to themplease please please tell me!!!! The image of them is still haunting me.