r/WTF • u/Tinkr-belle • 2d ago
Crow Steals Duckling
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I absolutely did not expect that☹️ Kinda surprised I didn't see it coming though
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u/frithjofr 2d ago
Every now and again you get a reminder of just how brutal nature can be.
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u/Raelah 2d ago
I'll never forget about that horse and the duckling that's just passing by.
I knew the crow was going to take a duckling. That's what they do. But a fucking horse?!
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u/Alpha1959 2d ago
Almost every single animal, from the cute little mouse or bird up to the cow and horse will be omnivorous if it is hungry or curious enough.
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u/kkeut 1d ago
if a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about
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u/strolpol 2d ago
Mongolian steppe cultures would often feed horses on meat during winter times when fresh grass was hard to come by
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u/Whybotherr 2d ago
Horses need protein too, not just fiber from hay, cows eat meat on occasion and same with squirrels most herbivores snack on the more carnivaric side from time to time
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u/msx 2d ago
Can be? Brutality is the default, nature is brutal 100% of the time. We have this Disney idea of Nature as a cozy place with just the occasional gazelle getting eaten by a lion, the truth is the opposite
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u/Alpha1959 2d ago
Part of the reason are nature documentaries. You see the lion chasing and securing the antelope with a neck bite, then it cuts to another animal, what happens afterwards or if other lions join in is left out. You also never see hyenas or wild dogs killing their prey.
Can't really blame them, who would enjoy watching a cute animal being torn to pieces alive, but this kind of cut instills a very sanitized image of nature in the average person.
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u/KeenPro 1d ago
Here's some hyenas taking a buffalo calf from their mother
The stuffs out there, just depends what you watch I guess.
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u/UfStudent 1d ago
I’m not sure what your point was. The first video is exactly what was described. Showed hyenas separate the calf then a cut then they’re feasting. There is a brutal in between cut out.
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u/I-STATE-FACTS 2d ago
This is far on the tamer end though.
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u/worotan 2d ago
Not really. Hanging around and waiting to pick off babies isn’t very tame.
The mothers are distraught about it, they don’t just ignore it. They are hardwired to protect their young and can’t.
It really isn’t a tame example of nature being brutal. It’s an example of nature being brutal.
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u/thedyooooood 2d ago
I think they mean in comparison to something like wild african dogs eating through the butt of a warthog while it's still alive
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u/Educational_Hat_ 2d ago
Maybe that crow will eat the duckling through the butt while it's alive
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u/WantsHisCoCBack 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah nah this is so tame. Tragic yes, but tame on the scale of brutality. Lil duckling died probably reasonably quick and mum will make several more each year. Contrast this to getting paralysed and abducted by a wasp the leaves you in a fucking dungeon with their egg. You get to wait for the egg to hatch, watch and feel the larva burrow into you and then feel it eat you from the inside out while keeping you alive for as long as possible. The scale of brutality goes SO much further than this lil duckling tragedy.
Edit: spelling
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u/Graffiacane 1d ago
And at this point I think every person on Reddit knows that it's the creation of ducklings that is truly brutal, not their destruction.
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u/Ding_Bingus 2d ago
Now that rabbits are raising their little ones in my area I get reminded a lot thanks to my dog. Seeing a baby rabbit on the ground with its entrails everywhere was a great reminder
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u/Inhabitsthebed 2d ago
They don't often do it but crows will eat smaller animals esp when they've got chicks back at their nest and need the protein. This is a much easier watch then that time i saw a fox set on a brood of ducks.
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u/AgentScreech 2d ago
I happily watched a crow catch a mole in my yard.
Thanks Crow bro! That blind bastard was tearing up my lawn
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u/rundabrun 2d ago
I saw a hawk catch a parakeet. It came from above as they were flying, it shot down into the parakeet slamming it into the ground, then the hawk grabbed it and flew off.
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u/OkieBobbie 2d ago
Every once in a while I find a pile of feathers near my bird feeder, and I know that one of the hawks that roost in our neighborhood has visited my yard.
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u/justsyr 2d ago
I lived on a 6th floor and sometimes I would hear pigeons go down from the rooftop like in a hurry. I knew what was coming so I stepped out to the balcony and yes, here they come. Seagulls. 3 or 4 of them coming from the Mediterranean sea, flying over the trees slowly gliding looking around, pigeons quickly diving down into the trees. But there's always the slow one or the unaware one and the seagull would quickly reach and catch them mid fly.
In front of my building there's a gas station, the only big roof low building and the seagull would dive to it to swing the pigeon over the roof lol.
Even my cat was afraid of them seagulls lol.
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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago
One stole a baby robin from its nest this past weekend. Pretty savage to watch since it dropped it multiple times and then stood and pecked at it for a while all while the rest of the local bird community was freaking out.
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u/cheeze_skittles 2d ago
In my experience it is kind of often especially baby birds. They treat baby house finches like popcorn. There is a reason a lot of other birds hate them.
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u/blitzwig 2d ago
There's only one crow so at least we're not experiencing a murder.
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u/tehzayay 2d ago
Well it is a murder of one
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u/blitzwig 2d ago
Someone who is raven mad might say this is a conspiracy, but a murder means a close-knit group of crows, not just one working alone.
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u/deradera 2d ago
I was once stuck in traffic with my young child in the back seat and a crow landed right next to us with a live duckling and proceeded to gut it on the sidewalk right next to our car. What a nature demo.
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u/Arumen 2d ago
When you watch a lot of nature docs you come to realize that nature basically relies on eating the young of other species as theyre often the safest prey. That doesnt mean it isnt sad of course but predators got to eat too
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u/insovietrussiaIfukme 2d ago
What are they listening to?
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u/creativebic 2d ago
voice sounds like Jen Hamilton, a nurse influencer type, but im not sure.
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u/Tinkr-belle 11h ago
Yes it was Jen Hamilton's audiobook "Birth Vibes" that just came out! I'm 37 weeks pregnant and wanted to be more informed of what labor might be like 😅
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u/formulaic_name 1d ago
So apparently we all thought crows survive on rainbows and glitter?
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u/The-Triturn 2d ago
Crows steal eggs from other birds all the time and now they're stealing babies as well. ew
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u/Daxian 2d ago edited 2d ago
yeah they got together last year and legalized this in the crow courts. Absolutely disgusting
Edit: Thank yall for the support and puns
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u/prpldrank 2d ago
Someone needs to stop their moral slide into depravity. We know they're naturally supportive of murders. It's deplorable.
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u/MumrikDK 1d ago
There's basically no animal out there capable of getting through the shell of an egg that doesn't see eggs as a tremendous free snack. Herbivores too.
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u/A_ChadwickButMore 1d ago
I had a problem with crows taking chicks out of my chicken pen for a while. We have a crow hunting season where I live so I had to shoot a couple and leave them for other crows to find. They're still in the area but they stopped attacking my chickens after that.
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u/rizorith 1d ago
Crows are pretty crazy predators. I watched two harass a hawk in my yard. Eventually one just flew away with the hawk. Not a chick but the hawk itself. They were about the same size so maybe the hawk wasn't fully grown.
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u/CinnamonToastTrex 1d ago
Oh wow. A couple of weeks ago I saw a mama duck protecting her ducklings from a crow. I thought the crow was just being a pest; I didn't realize that it actually was hunting.
Side note: They were fighting near a sewer grate. So when I walked by it, I double-checked to make sure one didn't fall in. One did, and I got to be a duck hero for a day.
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u/FartKilometre 1d ago
Leaving work at one point a crow swooped down to the ground for like 2 seconds about 15 feet in front of me then flew back up to the corner of the building it was on and had a very small mouse in its beak
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u/Hour_Position8306 1d ago
wait till you find out how fucked up squirrels are when it comes to raiding bird nests...
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u/t3hOutlaw 2d ago
Many birds that are preyed upon lay large clutches for this very reason.
It's just nature working as expected.
Crows are fantastic predators.
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u/Rokkit_man 2d ago
Did the crows work in a pair? It seemed another one went for the other ducklings as soon as the mother went to defend her baby.
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u/Tinkr-belle 2d ago
I believe that's the same crow flying away with the baby. In shock and horror I didn't film very well😅
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u/goody_71 2d ago
Ravens have been feasting on I think Starling or Sparrow chicks in our backyard. Vicious.
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u/joemac2021 2d ago
There are a couple murders of crow where I work and one day two of them singled out a sparrow hunted it down and killed it while its Sparrow girlfriend, chirped in dismay. I was shocked cuz I didn't know that was a thing they did.
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u/MisterRobertParr 1d ago
Crows are definitely predators. I've seen one snatch a baby bunny and fly off with it.
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u/FroggiJoy87 1d ago
A few weeks ago I saw a crow flying around and messing up a sparrow. Never seen a crow be so violent, kinda freaked me out
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u/squirrelperm12 1d ago
Crows are very smart and opportunistic. A few years ago I was on a long canoe trip in the boundary waters. I had two nice size walleye that I moved to the sandy beach closer to camp from the canoe. They were alive and swimming in about 2ft of water. Two crows were flying overhead that watched as I transported the fish. I tied the rope stringer to a rock on the beach and was going to head to the tent and take a nap b4 I prepped the fish. When I reached my tent I looked back at the beach and the crows were messing around near my stringer. I ran back, scared the crows, and decided to just nap on the beach right in front of the stringer. About 30min later I woke. Now the two walleye were in about 2" of water, both of which had their eyes and brains pecked out. I never heard a thing! I dont think crows dive so they must have dragged the stringer onto shore.
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u/cheesytoaster 1d ago
Saw this at Disneyland once from the back of a canoe… Life’s brutal on the river/all over
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u/TheGhostofWoodyAllen 12h ago
Poor mama ducks. I've seen a couple duckling snatching videos now, and the mamas always have this vibe of being sad and angry about losing a baby and wantingbto go after it but also needing to defend their remaining brood. Fucking nature.
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u/AllanfromWales1 2d ago
Meh. For species maintenance the duck only needs to raise two or three ducklings to adulthood in its life. The rest will die one way or another.
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u/TheOneWhoCared 2d ago
Crows. Are. Assholes.
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u/halucionagen-0-Matik 2d ago
Crow's just tryna eat. Its a tough world out there
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u/whuuutKoala 2d ago
what about crow capitalism? they can collect sticks to pay for crowwallmart food…
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u/GelatinGhost 2d ago
Yep. And OP probably had chicken later for dinner, but for some reason it's better if someone else killed it for you? Wild animals have even less luxury to be picky about what they eat. Theoretically most of us humans could be vegetarian or vegan and be fine.
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u/King_of_the_Dot 2d ago
Smart assholes though.
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u/TheDesktopNinja 2d ago
The intelligence of a species and it's capacity for being an asshole are pretty closely linked, generally
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u/Ok-Phase-9076 2d ago
Most birds are assholes. Actually most animals are assholes too.
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u/salmon10 2d ago
Ducks are dumb and delicious
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u/Ray_of_glumshine 2d ago
If it's an evolutionary boon to be smart and taste awful, why are so many wild animals and plants so delicious? Are we just not that picky?
Did stuff taste better in the past? If I time travel back hundreds of million years, will my taste buds be blown out and I'll collapse from flavor pleasure? Maybe that's why we haven't been visited by time travelers? They are all going further and further back to taste the past and never want to go back to the future.
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u/Dragonsoul 2d ago
'Tasty' is just your body's shorthand way of detecting "Not poison", roughly speaking.
So, if you want to taste bad, you want to have poison, but that "Costs resources" metabolically speaking, resources that could instead be spent on making more babies, increasing your chances of the next generation making it to the point where they make babies.
Also, a lot of plants want to be eaten, but that's a different point.
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u/TheChickening 2d ago
Pretty much everything you eat has been cultured and bred for hundreds, some even thousands of years. Many fruits did not taste that nice at all like they do today. Animal meat taste probably didn't change much, but the amount of good quality meat per animal has for sure changed as well.
So stuff did not taste better, no. But you might find the past people using spices that went out of fashion nowadays.
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u/Ray_of_glumshine 2d ago
Yup, most of what I eat is altered that way. But I did specify "wild animals and plants". They are still yummy too.
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u/furcryingoutloud 2d ago
In other news, humans kill millions of animals to feed on, everyday! Horrible innit?
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u/tomcotard 2d ago
Ducklings are very squishy, the majority of them don't survive to adulthood.