Animals have personalities of their own and some animal behavior can be very similar to human behavior, and some animals can indeed get jealous
This article is a quick exploration of whether ducks can get jealous
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Do ducks get jealous?
Jealousy isn’t only a human phenomenon, certain animals will see you giving attention to others and will be jealous that they aren’t on the receiving end of said affection, ducks included, here are a couple of scenarios of where ducks get jealous:
Male ducks and offspring:
While a male duck wouldn’t kill his own offspring he will get jealous and kill the offspring of another male duck. The male duck’s instinct and objective is to have his own offspring.
If he does not have offspring, and he sees a female duck raising the offspring of another male duck, he will get jealous of the attention that the ducklings get from her and he will kill the offspring in order to get the mother duck to want to mate again and produce offspring, his offspring.
What to do:
If you want to keep the male duck from killing ducklings then the best thing you can do is to keep male ducks separated from any new mother ducks until the ducklings are older and can keep him away
Ducks possessive of humans:
Drakes (male ducks) will not only get jealous of baby ducklings that are getting the attention of their mothers, these male birds will also get jealous if it is attached to you and sees you giving your attention to someone else or to another duck.
When these birds get attached they become very loyal and want to socialize with you all the time, these birds are very social and if they see you spending time with another bird or with another person then the bird will not like it, will become jealous, and will even act out
What to do:
If the other ducks, or if another person, needs your attention then you can tend to them and then get back to the male duck, he will stop expressing this jealous behavior as soon as you move your attention back to him.
Him acting out and being jealous is just a show to get some attention out of you
Male ducks and their mates:
This is yet another scenario where male ducks will be jealous of another duck.
Male ducks are very possessive over their mates. The male duck will try hard to win her attention, court her and get her to mate with him and this takes effort, he will also look after her during the incubating process as well.
If another male tries to go for his mate then he will become very jealous and fight for his woman.
Fights between the two male ducks can become quite serious with each duck biting at the other and flapping their wings at the other until one backs down and leaves the female alone.
What to do:
There is nothing that needs to be done in this scenario, this is normal duck behavior and is a way for the male duck to assert his dominance and superiority in the face of an attack from another duck.
The losing duck will go on its way once he is defeated and things will go back to normal.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: How To Get Rid Of Duck Poop Smell, My Mallard Duck Flew Away Will It Come Back?, My Mallard Duck Flew Away, Do Ducks Remember Humans?, Will Soft Duck Eggs Hatch?