Pecking Order Problems?

[Charlielou14]

I am always unsure how to make a post on here so I created a new thread. I have 7 ducks as of Monday. I had 8 ducks before that. The one I lost was the father of 5 of my ducks. About a week before his death, my dad noticed that one of his sons was mounting him almost in a sexual way but it also looked like he was purposely trying to drown him. This worried me so I kept a close eye on the two of them but never saw this behavior myself. Then, on Monday, I came home from work and walked down to my ducks. I noticed that the two were missing and looked across our cove. Sure enough, Maverick had his bill down in the water looking suspicious. I run over and he swims away. There was Duckota floating in the water. He had been drown... I am stumped on this. They always got along before and Duckota (the dad) was at the top of the pecking order. Maverick was normally the one getting out of his way. Is this a dominance thing during their mating season or was there possibly something wrong with Duckota that I didn't know about and Maverick was taking matters into his own feathers? Any ideas? Thank you!

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Males will fight,generelly worsens in springs.Males do mount other males in a way to show dominance.The mounting could have been due to the son dominating over the father,and just accidentally drowned him,not his ententions.

 

[Charlielou14]

Yeah that is what I was thinking a few people suggested the illness but the dominance made more sense to me. Thank you.