Filed under: Wildlife
Something I had wondered about all my life.
How on earth do you get fish showing up in every body of water you pretty much ever heard of? When the places are not connected at all? I mean, it’s not like fish fly.
The Washington Post reports that a carp, to take one type, can release a hundred thousand eggs.
So: some researchers fed 8,000 carp eggs to eight mallard ducks, and 18 eggs, it turned out, were still viable after passing through the ducks’ digestive systems one to four hours later.
By which point the birds could be miles away from where they ate that meal.
It’s as simple and logical as that.
Scientists are little kids who grew up and still wondered about duck poop.
4 Comments so far
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So much Serious Research probably starts with someone saying, “That’s cool; I wonder why…?”
Comment by ccr in MA 07.06.20 @ 6:04 amSeven degrees of separation. Who knew it worked for ducks and fish? But it works also for birds and weeds so I guess we shouldn’t be quite so surprised?
Science teaches us some pretty amazing things because someone, somewhere, said “huh, I wonder . . .”
Chris S
And if you call it Scatology, it’s especially classy.
Comment by twinsetellen 07.06.20 @ 9:59 pmThanks for the great word. If it didn’t exist before (I think it did?) it sure does now.
Great morning chuckle!
Chris S
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