Do Ducks Fart?
By: Eira Braun-Labossiere
Tags: Animals, Life, Humour, Humor, Nature

Do Ducks Fart?

Photo by Uwe Nake from Pexels

I can’t help myself. Nature is so fascinating that random questions frequently populate my thoughts.

Thanks to the immediacy of online research I can find answers pretty quickly and I know you’ll be delighted that I’ve neatly curated my strange queries and answers for you here today.

#1 Do Ducks Fart?

My husband, Martin, and I were having a highbrow conversation about flatulence one afternoon. We walk our two dogs twice a day over a bridge that carries us over the local river. There is a small open space of water that is shrinking fast as the ice solidifies with Mallards dotting the surface. We’ve named the duck leader “Randall” and can read the minds of the other ducks: “Randall, why the hell didn’t we migrate with all the other ducks? This ‘stay-cation’ business is bullsh*t!”

But I digress.

So if we humans can fart, do ducks fart also?

The answer is no. On Vox.com Brian Resnick reviews the book “Does It Fart?: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence” written by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti. He states:

How do we not have a book in our home library called “Does It Fart?”? Excuse me while I check Amazon…

#2 Do Coyotes Have Friends?

On these same walks with our dogs, which currently happen during peak hunting times (dawn and dusk), we spot coyotes often along the river banks. Are they hunting alone or in a pack? Apparently they do both but more typically hunt alone since they tend to go after smaller prey. However…

Researching their hunting habits revealed an unusual hunting partner: they have been spotted making pals with the American Badger!

Wikipedia notes they hunt together, the badger flushing out burrowing animals while the coyote pounces on them. Their mutualistic relationship has been observed and documented since around 1300 AD.

[There is even a video circulating of the unlikely pair playing together. Come ON! The cuteness!]

#3 What Are Cows Thinking About?

Gary Larson’s cows. Larson had the most hilarious insights on nature and one of my most favourites had three parts.

In the first panel we see three ungulates standing on their back hooves, their attention turned to a fourth cow, scouting just a few steps away. “Car!” he announces.

In the second panel they all return to expected boring placid cow behaviour on all fours.

Finally in the third panel, the car has passed and the cows nonchalantly resume their visit, as if posing upright like people is their natural state and humour people by acting like animals.

[Yes, it’s much funnier to look at the original strip but I don’t want to infringe on Larson’s copyright by posting it. I’m sure you can find it here somewhere but I’ve run out of time to do your dirty work!]

Perhaps this cartoon was peculating in the back of my brain that day as Martin and I were on a road trip to Calgary. Alberta is cattle country and you pass a great deal of pastures. As the cows flashed by me I mused aloud, “I wonder what they’re thinking?” This unexpected observation ignited a chortle from my husband. He gets a kick out of it when I verbalize my random thoughts. (Trust me he’s as weird as I am!)

I am a big fan of Dr. Temple Grandin, inventor of the hugging machine and advocate for the humane handling of livestock. In a Terry Gross interview, Grandin credits her autism as a means of understanding animals’ unique view of the world:

Aha! So while they may not be entertaining Einstein’s theory or analyzing how delicious the grass is today, I believe they are working out more than just survival reactions; cows simply experience the world differently than most humans. It’s quite mooo-ving when you think about it. (Yes, the pun had to happen!)

#4 Do Crows Think Magpies are Hot?

The Carrion Crow and the Magpie are so similar, I wonder if they ever cross-pollinate in a corvidae kind of way and have little hybrid feathered babies? After all, who can resist a guy in a tux?

Magpies, the James Bond of birds.

Turns out it may be possible but not likely. A Wildlife forum community member of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds states “Hybridisation between Carrion Crow and Magpie has not been documented, but hybridisation between the very similar Hooded Crow and Magpie has.”

Like my Charles the crow, these sleek and cocky corvids do come across as pretty high on themselves, so I guess they really don’t need to look outside their own sub-species, do they?

#5 Don’t Beavers Give a Dam About Drowning in their Dams?

The beaver and the moose are Canada’s most celebrated national symbols. I should know much more about these odd creatures than I do. That’s why I turned to Canada’s greatest nature educator: Hinterland Who’s Who. (Canadians will know exactly what I’m talking about, imagining the intro flute now!)

Beavers dwell in the river just a few blocks from our home. They have been obsessing about making dams there for months. They build their little lodges out of sticks and branches they gnaw off of trees, sometimes on land but also on the water. While they can exist underwater for up to 15 minutes, how can they withstand an entire winter living without air?

Turns out it’s an optical illusion! They build their robust houses on a bank in such a way that they are above water yet have tunnels accessing the water below. There they store food (sticks) so when the water surface freezes and they can’t access fresh vegetation, they’ve got some snicky-snacks in their watery cupboards.

[Watch Hinterland Who’s Who “The Beaver” episode here or go directly to 1:55 specifically for beaver lodge edification.]

They’re cute, they’re industrious, this rodent has got it going on!

Curious Kittens Want to Know

If you’ve made it thus far, you’ve proven your inquiring mine is as freakish as mine.

Thank you for joining my dorky world of curiosity.