
Mallards ferry fish eggs between waterbodies - Someone
https://www.audubon.org/news/mallards-ferry-fish-eggs-between-waterbodies-through-their-poop
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blakesterz
That's TERRIBLE news for The Great Lakes:

[https://greatlakes.org/2019/08/new-study-finds-asian-carp-
th...](https://greatlakes.org/2019/08/new-study-finds-asian-carp-threat-to-
lake-michigan-is-greater-than-previously-thought/)

People are fighting like hell to keep Asian carp out of the lakes, this makes
me think it's an impossible fight.

~~~
lxmorj
Just introduce Baikal Seals to the Great Lakes & they'll eat the carp. Plus -
water pups!

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technothrasher
This is quite interesting, as it has long been the popular belief that birds
were responsible for migrating fish eggs to new bodies of water (albeit
usually stated as external transport on legs and or feathers, not internal).
Even Charles Darwin proposed this explanation. But there has been little
scientific evidence that this was actually true.

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stephenhuey
Just mentioned this story to my fisherman friend and he said he has dug quite
a few ponds and often seen fish magically appear before they stock the pond.

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erikig
"If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life
will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and
crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well,
there it is. ...Life finds a way." \- Jurassic Park

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curiosity42
Oh, thank you! I am now past my middle age, but I so remember as if it were
yesterday, the day when I was not more than 7 years old. A completely isolated
small puddle of water, all that remained after few days rain and then
Sunshine. I stepped on it, creating small waves and a couple of fish emerged
writhing on to the dry surface. No one could answer how they came about. All
my 7 year brain could think of then was some bird must have dropped them by
accident. And now I have the answer!

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pvaldes
> No one could answer how they came about

There are simpler explanations for that. It depends on the location but in
some places is pretty normal.

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danhak
I always suspected this was how fish wind up in isolated lakes and ponds but
no one could ever tell me for sure.

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h2odragon
The "it is known" story i had was that fish eggs stick to the legs of wading
brids; exterior transmission... It doesn't seem impossible but birds groom
themselves too, so I dunno.

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gweinberg
In hindsight it seems so obvious. Going forward, "duck poop" will be my new
default answer to every question.

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pvaldes
Not, is not so normal. We talk of putting a delicate embrio for several hours
in a bottle of hydrochloric acid or vinegar (PH: 1-3), and expecting that the
animal will survive intact and without any inner damage in organs or skeleton.
Even a minor damage would disqualify it for competing and survive in nature;
and we are assuming that hatching means survival, correct grow and even a
guarantee of living enough years to be able to reproduce. Is a big leap.

This is not what happens normally and the original experiment should have
addressed it.

But the idea is pretty convenient so we can now start blaming the ducks and
talking about stop spending money in "unavoidable" processes when in the 99%
of the cases the real culprit will be human

Is like seeing lots of money vanished for a bank with the door crashed and
blame termites for it.

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nazgulsenpai
There's a Monty Python and the Holy Grail joke in there somewhere but I can't
quite reach it.

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wbazant
I really enjoy how it's not quite parasitology research, but involves very
similar methods :)

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pvaldes
I had the same conversation in other forum two days ago and my opinion has not
changed.

Not. Not necessarily.

> Hungarian researchers fed...

The team comprises researchers working in Hungary _and_ Spain in fact

As they say, is a preliminary study

