New discovery: Bird-eating ducks amaze scientists

Zoologists at the University of Cambridge (UK) found that blue-necked ducks attacked and ate migrating birds in Romania. This is a shocking finding because they have never seen ducks show signs of eating meat for survival.

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In the process of recording a flock of blue-necked ducks in a water reservoir in Romania, the team suddenly noticed their unusual behavior.

Dr. Silviu Petrovan, the head of the study, said he saw the red-tailed warbler bird being chased by an immature green-neck duck. Meanwhile, an adult female duck uses a beak to bury the gray wagtail, and continuously submerge her prey in the water before eating meat.

The researchers were surprised because this was the first time they had seen mallards eating large vertebrate meat.

Blue-necked ducks are among the most abundant wild ducks, they live mainly in parks and lakes. Blue-necked ducks are known to be animals that normally eat seeds, berries, insects, . sometimes even small fish but eat a bird like that, this is the first time. Never had the same behavior in ducks in the past.

Previously, scientists had encountered blue-necked ducks in California (USA) into the sea to eat sand crab meat. They believe that behavior may be aimed at gathering new protein rich foods.

Dr Petrovan said: " The green-necked duck has encountered many difficulties in the process of eating the bird of the lime. Because with its flat beak, it cannot tear off its prey, it does not evolve to serve food. meat prey has a large backbone ".

Ducks are gentle animals, rarely appear aggressive or tend to change food types.

According to Dr. Petrovan, the reason for this unusual behavior is probably due to the pressure from the growing young fish that make them turn to look for other protein-rich food sources. And maybe they've just learned to eat migratory birds recently.

The results of the study are published in the journal Waterbirds.