A video news article this week showed a group of children taking a birthday party trip to the zoo. In a glass enclosure was a brown bear whose habitat also included a female duck and her brood of ducklings.
I don’t know for sure how avian nesting works, but for all I know the poor mother duck got stuck in an urgent situation in which she knew she had to lay her eggs in the bear enclosure. Any woman due to have a baby can tell you that when the baby comes, you can do nothing about it. In the case of birds, they have more than one baby coming, and they don’t undergo labor as we know it. Eggs pop out one at a time, and then the mother duck is held captive while she incubates them. She happened to nest with a pair of bears named Juniper and Fern. The ducklings hatched, and as they usually do, imprinted on mama and followed her around. She took a dip in the water, and they followed obediently in as well.
Bears are known to have omnivorous habits; particularly in the wild, anything edible is fair game for bears. The video which went viral showed the birthday party children looking on in horror as Juniper took a look at the ducklings swimming behind their mother and instinctively pictured convenient snack food; Juniper proceeded to devour every duckling in turn.
The Woodland Park Zoo put things into perspective, saying that wild fowl are discouraged from nesting in carnivore enclosures, but they go where they choose and, in this case, the mother duck apparently suffered the consequences.
Fern, the companion bear, had no comment.
In the course of this past week, I also had the opportunity to see a male gorilla make whoopie with his female as zoo visitors watched, and I saw another video in which a group of tourists on a safari truck ended up with a pair of lions engaged in the “wild thing” atop the vehicle.
Two things can be learned from this. First, the circle of life is all-encompassing, and you never know when a free lesson will be presented to your youngsters. Second, never click on a video unless you’re ready to become an unwilling subscriber to anything even remotely connected to it.
Juniper’s snack I could handle, but the rest did nothing for me. I would get more excitement out of another marathon of “50 Shades of Grey.”
As for mama duck, I hope she has better luck next season. Maybe she should nest in the children’s zoo.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 
Can’t Bear to Watch
Posted at 4:30 pm by kayewer, on May 4, 2024
A video news article this week showed a group of children taking a birthday party trip to the zoo. In a glass enclosure was a brown bear whose habitat also included a female duck and her brood of ducklings.
I don’t know for sure how avian nesting works, but for all I know the poor mother duck got stuck in an urgent situation in which she knew she had to lay her eggs in the bear enclosure. Any woman due to have a baby can tell you that when the baby comes, you can do nothing about it. In the case of birds, they have more than one baby coming, and they don’t undergo labor as we know it. Eggs pop out one at a time, and then the mother duck is held captive while she incubates them. She happened to nest with a pair of bears named Juniper and Fern. The ducklings hatched, and as they usually do, imprinted on mama and followed her around. She took a dip in the water, and they followed obediently in as well.
Bears are known to have omnivorous habits; particularly in the wild, anything edible is fair game for bears. The video which went viral showed the birthday party children looking on in horror as Juniper took a look at the ducklings swimming behind their mother and instinctively pictured convenient snack food; Juniper proceeded to devour every duckling in turn.
The Woodland Park Zoo put things into perspective, saying that wild fowl are discouraged from nesting in carnivore enclosures, but they go where they choose and, in this case, the mother duck apparently suffered the consequences.
Fern, the companion bear, had no comment.
In the course of this past week, I also had the opportunity to see a male gorilla make whoopie with his female as zoo visitors watched, and I saw another video in which a group of tourists on a safari truck ended up with a pair of lions engaged in the “wild thing” atop the vehicle.
Two things can be learned from this. First, the circle of life is all-encompassing, and you never know when a free lesson will be presented to your youngsters. Second, never click on a video unless you’re ready to become an unwilling subscriber to anything even remotely connected to it.
Juniper’s snack I could handle, but the rest did nothing for me. I would get more excitement out of another marathon of “50 Shades of Grey.”
As for mama duck, I hope she has better luck next season. Maybe she should nest in the children’s zoo.
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Author: kayewer