Imprinting

[chichi56788]

when my ducks hatch and grow up I have to give them to my good friend to keep on his farm. I was wondering if they imprint. I would feal bad if they missed me when I wasn't there. I would visit them, but not be able to see them every day,

 

[FireTigeris]

Ducks imprint to a species, baby ducks imprint to another duck or to humans- it doesn't matter what duck or human.

(We did an imprint study in HS on this, that's why ducks line up the first duckling imprints to 'adult duck', each other duckling imprints to 'duckling' - if a duck imprints to a human (only sees human for the first 3 days) it will follow around humans and court humans it won't know what to do with a duck... the ducks that imprint to 'duckling' see how 'duckling -> duck' changes and accept 'duck' as potential mates... (hypothesis)

(These ducklings were mallards and were returned to the breeder/farmer as dual purpose birds)

I got several 'transfer' ducklings that were imprinted to 'human' they all followed me not in a line they tripped over themselves to follow just me.
They would follow anyone that would walk slowly enough or was calling them... not just me.

When they reached adulthood (2nd full molt) /I didn't return mine as they had been poorly cared for and the others had been picked up already/ they only displayed courtship to humans (either gender) they never bred even though there were 4 boys and 6 girls... they eventually succumbed to old age and a nest of great horned owls and really adventuous coons. (they were homed in a not-secure-enough in-hindsight coop on an island with a tree in a lake.

 

[Kittymomma]

I *think* that ducklings do imprint, but if you are going to bring them to the farm after they grow up it won't matter. Momma duck doesn't spend her whole life with the ducklings either, just gets them off to a good start and then they make their own way in the world.

 

[chichi56788]

That was very helpful!

Thanks so much for telling me. Now I wont be so worried about the future of my sweet ducklings.