The ducks are a symbol of community to students around campus
By AMBER WARNKE — features@theaggie.org
The ducks living in the Arboretum on campus have captured the hearts of students for decades, contributing to the beauty of the UC Davis campus. They also benefit the local ecology, according to John Veon, an ecology Ph.D. student with an emphasis on waterfowl and wetland ecology.
“They’re gonna be eating a lot of foods, like invertebrates and plants, but also they cycle a lot of those foods,” Veon said. “So all the nitrogen and phosphorus from the waste that they have, they’re gonna put that back in the environment and that’s positive for plant growth. They can also participate in seed dispersal, so they can eat plant seeds and move them to other locations.”
When describing the types of ducks students can spot in the Arboretum, Veon said that the ducks are “a mix.”
“A lot of them are mallards, which is one of the most common ducks in North America,” Veon said. “But they’re also crossbred. There [are] other ducks, like wood ducks, [that] I’ve seen in there. You’ll see a lot of those. And it’s not uncommon to see a few diver ducks, like ringnecks, and things that might be swimming around looking for fish.”
Jacqueline Satter, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the ecology graduate group, commented on the origins of the Arboretum ducks.
“The Arboretum ducks are a pretty good mix of [non]-wild ducks, what I assume are released farm ducks and some companions that have joined them along the way, but we still love them,” Satter said. “They’re probably farm-influenced and genetically not really wild. They still endure a lot; ducks are ridiculously adaptable.”
Kevin Ringelman, an assistant professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, also discussed the Arboretum’s mix of farm and hybrid ducks.
“The ducks that you see in the Arb are mostly resident,” Ringelman said. “They live there all year round.”
Veon also shed light on how UC Davis students can help protect and support the Arboretum ducks.
“What you can do is the big one, not littering or feeding them,” Veon said. “When you start to feed them seeds, they start to associate with the fact that, ‘Oh humans are friends,’ and we don’t want to do that — because there may be context, whether it be roadways or out there in other environments where our disturbances may lead to their mortality.”
Veon says that feeding can also bring the ducks in close proximity to one another, which can transmit diseases among the population. It’s also against state law, as it can lead to duck overpopulation and pollution.
Veon suggests that students can protect the ducks by giving the wildlife space.
“Whenever you try to chase a duck or you try to handle a wild duck, they’re burning a bunch of precious energetic resources,” Veon said. “So they need that for all their little ducklings, their egg development and they need that for growing feathers every year.”
Veon continued by offering suggestions for people to do their part in enabling the ducks to happily exist in their environments for years to come.
“If you ever want to get involved in waterfowl conservation that would tangentially benefit your Arboretum ducks, [buy] a duck stamp,” Veon said. “They’re beautiful [and] there’s a whole duck art competition that happens every year. You can go to your post office and purchase one, and that goes straight to waterfowl conservation.”
Veon also shared another interesting aspect of ducks: they help form communities, especially for nature lovers.
“Ducks are really good at bringing people together,” Veon said. “People love to watch ducks. You know, people come from a variety of backgrounds, whether you’re a hunter, you’re a birder or a park goer or a hiker.”
Students often spend time relaxing in the Arboretum, which covers 100 acres and was established in 1936. The popular spot on campus gives students a chance to interact with nature and wildlife, including the ducks.
Veon explains why he thinks humans connect so much to ducks.
“I think we find them so endearing because first off, aside from being cute and fluffy and quirky, they tend to have a level of affection towards each other,” Veon said. “They’re social groups, so [they] actually rely on each other to protect each other from predators. [It] kind of gets at the social context of how we like to be, for the most part. But also, you know, there’s a sense of protection and love that they give to their offspring.”
To Hannah Clements, a fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major, the ducks have a special meaning due to her involvement with the UC Davis Marching Band.
“I am a member of the alto saxophone section, and each of the sections in the band have a mascot, which is usually an animal,” Clements said. “The alto mascot is a duck because when you’re bad at the alto, which most of us were at one point, it sounds like a duck quacking.”
Clements feels that the mascot of the duck serves as a reminder of the importance of the relationships she has built in Davis.
“Whenever I see a duck I think of my friends and [the] community that I built,” Clements said. “So, it’s kind of something that brings us together, and I’d say it’s just a symbol of keeping the whimsy in college, which can be hard sometimes. You realize it’s nice to be silly sometimes.”
This affection for ducks is nearly universal, according to Veon.
“They’re just so deeply attached to each other, until they’re big enough to leave the nest, as we often say about many [kids] going off to college,” Veon said.
Everything that must be said about ducks can be summarized by Clements: “Quack!”
Written by: Amber Warnke — features@theaggie.org