Can ducks remember things?

[Miss Lydia]

Think about how imprinting works. At 1 - 5 days old one of these adorable fuzzballs decides that you're Mom. He follows you around (making that cuteness overdose inducing little pitter-patter with those little webbed feet on a hardwood floor), tweets in distress if you're out of obvious range for more than a minute or two and tries to bury/embed itself on in or under your body.

And ten years later, that duck will still recognize you as Mom.

Second, ducks are prey animals. Their main defense involving spotting trouble at a distance and then swimming/flying away from it. If ducklings are involved, a mother duck relies on aggressive charging or other displays to bluff predators into leaving her and her babies alone.

Ducklings aren't even prey animals. They're like the snack food of nature. Of a flock of ten hatchlings in the wild, a mallard mom might see one of two make it adulthood/flight capability.

So, given all that, if a duck gets into a bad situation (especially as a duckling) and somehow survives, the duck remembers because it knows very well that Mother Nature never hands out third chances and second ones are very few and very far between.

 

[Thunderduck9]

They are as smart as a 5year old I have one that teases the other males then runs and hides behind me and taunts them.I have one that plays me for a fool when i have snacks O ya she becomes little miss lovey dovey after the snacks are gone she doesn’t want anything to do with me.One that sits on my shoulder shouting out orders to the rest of the pack like he’s the king.one that whimpers and cry’s because she knows i will give her a snack to make her feel better.Then they will lineup in the creek in front of the kitchen window and scream until i come out to play they love when i pick them up and throw them in the air and land in the creek they get out and get in line to have me do it again.Then they actually play hide and seek they go and hide and wait till i find them but when i find Junior he goes and shows me where the rest are hiding yep he’s my little tattle tail.Yep the more time you spend with them the more you get to see how smart they are.If they don’t want to listen to me they turn around and put there heads underwater.If i call them and there way up the creek they come and go right to there pen.And they all know there name and they know when there in trouble and try wiggle there way out of it.