I just hatched one 2 days ago who was stuck in the egg. I helped it out and spent the majority of its first day with it. Guess what! It thinks I’m it’s mom. I never believed this until actually experiencing it.
I found this to be quite interesting. It teaches quite a bit about animal behaviors, and particularly the bond between a parent to its offspring and specifically how that bond is formed. One thing I found strange is when they did the experiment with the ducklings that were 30 hours old, although they clearly weren't imprinting on the objects that were introduced to them I found it interesting that they were still making the distress call and seemed to be looking for something other than the object in their vicinity. My question is why would they be making a distress call and searching for something if they won't imprint on anything at 30-hours old and up until that point no animal or object was ever introduced or otherwise shown to them?
We know more about this now than when the video was made. Ducklings imprint on their siblings but still need a "parent", and that object must be larger than them to trigger that instinct. As they get older it takes more exposure for them to imprint on a parent object because they develop a fear of novelty. The toy probably frightened them so they would have had to be around it for much longer to imprint on it.
@@daniellahl5809 I kind of did. The ducklings don't have a parent object but are still looking for one when they are in distress; such as when frightened by this new stimulus. It's just instinct for them to seek their parent out in these situations because they are pretty defenseless without someone to protect them from danger. This is why actually all of the ducklings make a distress call when first placed in the enclosure. They are alone, and to a duckling that is terrifying. In order to imprint after the critical period, they need to first overcome this fear, which takes time. This is why some domestic duck owners will spend a lot of time handling their ducklings to make it happen. During the critical period, it is believed they haven't developed this neophobia yet; it comes later so as not to interfere with the process of imprinting on their mother during their first day of life when they are still in the nest.
Just was watching some guys getting followed by ducks on some RU-vid shorts, pondered why this was quite common & boom this wonderful slice of information presents itself. Love the internet sometimes.
I have 2 baby ducklings at home and they imprinted on me they go crazy when im not around,distress calling and when i show up they show quiet little peeps, follow me around and hop on me and lay on me. Its actually really cute its weird tho cause i got them when they were 4 days old so the imprinting was late but almost immediate after. The one is a runt and hes missing half of his beak he relies on me more than his sister does.
"On wobbly legs, it seems to look for something, even though there is virtually nothing to see in the experiment's featureless environment" is just such a funny line. the 2:32 segment is hilarious!
They know thier families the way we know ours. The smell of the egg probably smells like thier family and they can recognize them easily once they find them.
A simple example is that when US ppl think all Asians look same but they don't actually look same if u live with Asians U'll find out that they have so much different features in their faces and look...😅(no offense to nobody) besides...animals have strong sense of smell
The experiment with the rabbit was dangerous as bunnies can turn around and stomp their feet really fast ... it’s dangerous for the baby duck to be in that
I have a rabbit and she stomps her feet when she's distressed or afraid. It makes a good thump but I doubt it could genuinely hurt anything. Also I've never heard of a rabbit biting someone out of the few dozen I've seen, so I don't think anything would happen. Rabbits will run away before they fight.
@@shoelacy7101 yes, me too. but they can get spooked by small noises or something and run (claws and their strength is in their feet) and hurt the ducky by accident.
I think it would be more interesting for the duck to have no interactions whatsoever. For their food and water to be provided to them but nothing more. Would they bond with their food containers?
they probably wouldn't because the object of imprinting needs to be moving (although it's possible to imprint on inanimate objects if that's your question)
They will be side by side until they grow up , never apart. When they get separated they make their little call/cry and take turns chirping 3x back and forth until they are close enough to find their way back to one another. So cute.
It is cruel, but it is also helpful in the pursuit of diminishing cruelty. We understand what distresses these animals better now, and can work towards mitigating these factors. We are kind of horrible creatures in that aspect, learning so much of kindness through our own ventures into cruelty. But science is an absolutely vital tool for us to progress into a future as kinder creatures
@@PimpolloMorales its not cruel, other species would just eat the ducks, humans are curious, they play with things to learn, they don't want the ducks just for their energy content, they actually care about what ducks do. ironically the concept of cruelty is something entirely human, there's no cruelty in nature, from the point of view of the duck, the object was really his parent, it would be cruel separating it after the imprinting, doing the experiment isn't cruel.
