The other day I showed photos of a mallard hen who came to the pond on Wednesday and whose bill markings were strikingly similar to that of Vashti, the hen who departed with her brood of seven a week before last Tuesday. Her behavior, her immediate bonding with Armon, and bill markings all combine to identify her as Vashti, whose brood likely perished after her exit. So it’s bittersweet that she returned again: sadness for the ducklings loss combined with joy and confidence that she’ll breed again. If she does, can we keep her here this time?
Anyway, I attach a few more photos showing a match between Vashti’s bill markings (taken before she fled) and the markings of the “new duck”. Some people were dubious about the hen’s identity, but I’m going with Vashti.
Vashti’s bill is distinguished, on its top side, by a black patch, then a break before the tip, which is again marked with black. Here it is:
Vashti again:
Top of the bill and left side new duck. Notice the two black patches extending ventrally from the left side of the top marking—same as above.
Top of the bill and right side, new duck
The top is a match, and, as I showed last time, so is the right side. Here’s the right side of the new duck again. Notice the match with the photo above: a black patch on the side with a line of speckles to its rear:
New duck, right side:
Given the huge variance in pigmentation of bills among hens, which you’d have to see for yourself to appreciate, the above is enough for me. Our new hen is Vashti. But I’ll also show the left side, for which the photos are not quite as good.
Vashti, left side of bill. There are not many markings but a few black dots below the nostril:
New duck, left side of bill. Notice the line of about five dots below the nostril—same as above.
It’s Vashti, who clearlymade her way back to the familiar pond after losing her brood. There is ample time for her to nest and incubate her eggs again, so I am feeding her a lot to prompt that. She’s bonded with Armon, who never left the pond, and they are showing bonding and courtship behaviors. I am pretty sure she will nest and breed again.
This would not be the first time we’ve had double-brooding here. When Honey stole Dorothy’s brood, getting a batch of 16 to take care of, Dorothy eventually re-nested and produced her own brood, which she did rear to fledging.
Here’s a classic photo of Honey with her mixed brood of 16, half of them ducknapped. She was a great mome, and all of these ducklings fledged. “But isn’t that evolutionarily maladaptive?”, you ask. Perhaps, unless Dorothy and Honey were related. I have no idea if they were, but I think it’s simply a case of a maternal instinct that was coopted, like humans adopting unrelated babies.
Isn’t this the kind of thing that AI is good at?
Well, be my guest!
Welcome home, Vashti!
💪
Now, time for an ol’ fashioned father-daughter talk about pulling these runaway stunts – no more of that, Vashti!
Phew! I’m relieved for you.
Pet stress is HORRIBLE stress!
D.A.
NYC 🗽
She identifies as Vashti! Let’s hope she learned her lesson and keeps her next brood at Botany Pond! I remember Dick Lewontin once mentioning that one doesn’t learn by making fatal mistakes. (It was a comment about natural selection, but I don’t remember the context.) Here’s a case where learning might indeed come from making a fatal mistake. Vashti, please keep your babies at home!
Non-biologist here. So if a hen loses her brood, she will mate again, and lay more eggs? But if any of the brood survive (even if just one), then she won’t mate again for the season? I don’t know why, but I just find that fascinating. Best wishes to Vashti!
If she loses her whole brood, she may re-nest (depends on the time of year). But with just one or a few ducklings following her around, she won’t mate again. I’ve never had a hen with just one, but I have had one with four, and she didn’t re-mate.
I’ve been hoping for this news since yesterday morning, when I clicked on the pond cam and saw a mallard couple swimming around.
But I never guessed the hen would be Vashti herself. Where has she been?? Why did she abscond? What happened to the ducklings? So many mysteries. But whatever the nature of her doomed adventure, I hope that Vashti at least learned there’s no place like home and stays put this time.
Maybe a hen that takes over another hen’s brood (thinking/hoping that’s what happened to Vashti’s ducklings) is a super-duper mom and they’ll be fine, and Vashti can start again.
Maybe “adopting” another brood means that a hen’s own babies are less likely to be taken by a predator once the broods are mixed together (“selfish herd effect)?
I think that is the best theory about this behavior. Duck decoys.
It’s an interesting biological question about caring for offspring not one’s own being maladaptive. We know of the classic example of cuckoo brood parasitism. Honey having behavior genetics that result in strongly maternal protection of her offspring would gurantee that most of her ducklings survive. As I understand it, wandering ducklings often get pecked to death by other unrelated adults. So at the slight risk to herself not being able to care for her own ducklings due to other, unrelated ducklings eating up calories or her attention, had she had weaker maternal instincts then maybe Honey would’ve pecked the intruders to death herself and fewer of her own offspring would have survived to adulthood. I’m not sure Honey’s strategy is maladaptive and it sounds like a game theoretic analysis might come to such a conclusion. Are mallard hens that strongly protect their offspring and up to say 20% interlopers more reproductively successful than less protective hens who lose offspring to predation/ducklingocide? Might it be a behavioral anomaly of semi-domesticated ducks with access to abundant food which might be less likely found in Nature (i.e. without humans providing food)? Thoughts?