The North American Ruddy Duck

Abstract

When pejamaicensis look crafty, smug, selfassured - possessing an expression that Rick Tucker, our head bird keeper, has called "slightly sinister." I am reminded of bear cubs - real ones. Rather than communicating helplessness and dependence, one imagines them saying, like Garrison Kiellor's Minnesotans: "I'm alright, thank you - that really isn't necessary ... " 

This, of course, is the product of our mind. The great and much beloved zoologist Konrad Lorenz (1950 and 1971) explains how the physical features of eagles and camels cause people to respectively connote "proud determination" and "haughtiness and disdain". Lorenz, typically, also cites his childhood dislike of certain trains because the ventilation flaps above the windows looked like unpleasantly raised eyebrows. Most of us have had similar, entirely inappropriate negative reactions to certain cars, toys, snapshots from the family photo album, the classroom portrait of George Washington, and countless other objects whose perceived hostility, badness, etc., exists entirely in our heads.

But it cannot be denied that Ruddies are a different kind of duckling. When a person looms over the Fort Worth Zoo duck brooders, he or she creates a commotion. Ducklings jump to their feet, crowd into corners, and are overall very disturbed. Marbled Teal try and jump right out. Ruddy Ducks, on the other hand, do not get up. They sit and tilt back their heads, staring up their flat foreheads, and hiss (deliberately, not excitedly) at the intruder, and these ducklings produce a very different sort of duck.

In Zoo Culture, a brilliant and thought provoking examination of the "why" of zoos from the perspective of the zoo builder and zoo visitor, sociologist Bob Mullan and anthropologist Garry Marvin (1987) discuss, on page 73, a phenomenon that is all too apparent to zoo bird staff: The average zoo visitor "just (does) not seem to be able to relate to birds". It "seems to be generally ople screw up their faces, wiggle their fingers, make all kinds of silly noises, and otherwise behave in undignified ways when interacting with babies and small children, this is, to some extent at least, the result of automatic, involuntary processes in their brains, known to behaviorists as Innate Releasing Mechanisms (Lorenz, 1950 & 1971). For reasons at least somewhat beyond our control, a great many of us at once respond positively towards round heads, large prominent eyes, and large round foreheads - perhaps a reason no one makes "Teddy-weasels" and that "Bambi" is not a pig.

"Baby ducks'', in general, are very good at triggering our innate releasing mechanisms. At the Fort Worth Zoo, we've had a very good season this year, and our brooders have held quite an assortment. Young Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) have a black line proceeding backwards from the eye, which with the dark cap, define a yellow "eyebrow", producing the effect of surprised innocence. Brazilian Teal (Amazonetta brasiliensis) have a similar "facial expression'', as well as Marbled Teal ducklings (Marmaronetta angustirostris), in a less sharply defined way. Maned Goose (Chenonetta jubata), Pintail (Anas acuta), and Chestnut Teal (Anas castanea) ducklings have a second line, running under the eye, making the eye look larger, thus increasing the effect upon our releasing mechanisms. "Please be nice to us! We are so small and helpless!" is a message communicated by all these black and yellow "wide-eyed" faces, with "raised eyebrows".

In marked contrast are some round, chunky ducklings with low foreheads and no "eyebrows" at all. Their eyes are bordered below with a pale line defined by the dark line beneath it, below which the remainder of the head is pale, creating...