I checked out the web re this question and it seems they can't. Well, no surprises there but how does the duck know that it has all its ducklings accounted for?
Today I was golfing (again) and it is now the season where there are mother ducks trailing their little families. No sight of Father ducks - they have obviously buggered off having done their business.
When I went down to the stream to look for golf balls (again) I disturbed one of these families which waddled off in a row across the fairway away from the stream. Mother duck quack-quack-quacked to get her charges in line and stayed quite close continually quacking.
I looked down into the stream and there was a little duckling who had gone the wrong way down the stream and now was battling its way upstream. It could hear its mother calling but couldn't get out of the stream. As I didn't want to scare it into going downstream again I stayed perfectly still and let it go past me against the flow. It eventually found a less steep bit of bank to climb up and it ran across to join its mother. When it was there the mother stopped quacking and set off with now 10 ducklings in tow.
Now how did it know one was missing. The Old Girl says that a mother duck having reared the ducklings instinctively knows each one by sight, smell and sound. she is aware of the absence of any one. I guess this is right and I feel sorry for the poor mothers who lose ducklings as the attrition rate is quite high. Do they stay around for ages looking?
I guess Richard (of RBB)'s ducklings have turned up again looking for food. I suggest that he counts them and leaves a note for the mother.
4 comments:
No ducklings yet, but it shouldn't be long.
"Can ducks count?"
No they f*cking can't.
They're birds for goddness sake.
They've got bird brains. eg. "Thick as Shit"
One, Two many, many, many etc
We used to have a whole family of ducks coming around to our pond in Normandale.
11 ducklings plus the parents (ours was obviously a non-Maori duck Dad. It stayed around)
when they got big enough, I began to shoot them one by one. the Mum never noticed (I also shot the Dad)and kept on bringing them round.
Delicious.
You are an evil old man TSB.
Yeah - got any new goldfish yet?
BTW my cat can count. She is bloody smart too. Also tells the time. Knows when its bed time get up tiem, dinner time, sleep time.
We feed her diced raw beef for her dinner. She always knows if she ahs been short changed. It has to be the same number of cubes per night or she comes to tell you.
Ginger Cats! There is no fooling them.
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