Reducing my Numbers

[Frank Phinster]

Hey, I am just checking--I have a wild Mallard that was attacked as a baby by a neighborhood dog while mama took the ducklings for a stroll. She has grown up and her primary flight feathers are coming in--when she is fully feathered, I am planning to release her back into a nearby park. I hope your advice would be different for me since she is a wild duck and can fly? She definitely does not love people--I am planning to have her start spending her days foraging in the backyard before I turn her loose. I just don't think she will be happy with us, (although we are getting a few domestic ducks soon) and I have done research and found that it isn't legal to keep her anyway as she is not a hatchery Mallard.

I actually believe that the law prohibits keeping animals taken from the wild as soon as they do no longer need human care.
Giving her time to adjust to outside conditions is a good idea. When you release her, look for other mallards, they will be helpful as guides in the new environment. What were her life conditions so far? Did she have plenty of water to swim and bathe?

 

[Eluria]

We give her swims in the bathtub and time running around the kitchen, but her "house" is a modified rubbermaid container (I had surgery only a few days after she was brought to us, and we were quite unprepared for a duck at that time). However, the duck palace will be DONE tomorrow! We had the whole family working on it today. That will be the beginning of her transition to the outdoors.

She is close to not needing us, but since those flight feathers aren't in all the way yet I don't think she would be able to fly away from a predator just yet. Or should I just turn her loose in the yard instead of a park, and let her migrate away when she is ready? I have heard Mallards will fly away quite often on their own.

 

[Frank Phinster]

If she hasn't been outside so far, time to adjust to outside conditions is definetely a good thing. A new place without human care and a strange environment could reduce her chances for adaptation. Especially when she hasn't been on a real pond or lake before, she might refuse to swim there at first. But sooner or later, most ducks check out a body of water when they are confronted with one.

Leaving her in the yard and waiting for her to depart is not a bad idea in my opinion, it might be that she returns in hope for food now and then though and it might take some time before she decides to leave for good.