Strange Question about cannibalistic ducks?

[GhostRider65]

My neighbor raises turkey ducks and buff ducks, well anyway why do the male juveniles kill the babies,? everyday I'm up there I see a young male killing a baby? is this normal? are ducks so cannibalistic? I thought about maybe raising a few next year, but not if this is what they do? Has anyone elses ducks killed the baby ducks? Are they not egtting enough to eat? is it a mating stratagy thing? they Males are about 6 months old born this spring. TY Kim

 

[bargain]

Mine have not done that! Sometimes waterfowl get territorial and the males want to see their duck wives again....I believe it's best to keep the drakes away while mother is mothering her young.... and so the drake doesn't get "jealous" or fiesty. I wouldn't call them cannibalistic just strongly territorial.... Hope that helps. Nancy

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Males will kill the babies so they can rebreed the females.

 

[GhostRider65]

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Are you kidding me? what are they related to Lions? I have heard of Feline species doing this but Ducks???

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Nope. Im not kidding. They want to rebreed the females, but the girls dont want to becuz they have babies allready, so the males will kill them. The ducklings dont even need to be with a mom, I have six ducklings, and I put them in the pen with the big ducks to see what they would do, and one of the drakes grabed one of the babies by the leg and was beating it up. I kicked him a cuddled the babie lol.

 

[desertdarlene]

Most males can breed females even with the little ducklings running about. It happens all the time in the wild. You see females with bald patches after they come out with their babies because the males are eager to mate with them again. But, I haven't seen a male pay any attention to a baby in the wild unless it got in the way or was pestering the male.

I do know males kill the babies, especially in captivity, but I don't know why.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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Why did you kick the drake? He was only protecting his flock from something unfamiliar to him. Ducklings should never be large ducks unless they have a mother, and even then its risky.

 

[duckluck]

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Then you somtimes get unusual circumstances like this summer when I was at a county fair, and there was a pair of larger ducks in a coop for judging and they had a duckling in with them...both the male and the female were parenting the lone duckling. It was cute to see but I was shocked that someone put them together like that in such close quarters under the stressful situation of being at a show. Very well behaved drake though.