BYU NewsNet - Dropping ducks off at pond could be harmful

Two new transfers are adjusting to campus life by jumping in and getting their feet wet.

A mother and child released two ducklings into the botany pond on the south end of campus Thursday (May 11, 2006), said Jeffrey Lant, a BYU business major from Laramie, Wyo., who saw the incident.

Lant said the mother-son-duo drove up to the pond and the child released a small yellow duck from a box and a brown duckling from a bag. Then they spread some seed and left, he said. Lant said it seemed the two ducks didn't know how to swim, and one of the male ducks was nipping at them, so he decided to check up on them the next day.

Lant said last year he saw the adult ducks protecting a group of ducklings from a circling hawk. He said he hopes the new ducks will learn to fend for themselves, and that they will do well down at the pond.

"It's pretty amazing," Lant said. "It's a little ecosystem."

BYU grounds director, Roy Peterman said he thinks it is irresponsible to abandon the ducklings at a crowded pond. A larger area like Utah Lake would be more suitable, he said. He also said he thinks there are already more ducks than the small pond environment can support.

The two dumped ducklings aren't the first to make an appearance at the pond. Yuanyuan Li, a BYU chemistry student from China, said she saw 13 ducklings with their mother at the pond Wednesday. She sighed heavily when she saw one of the duck eggs down at the pond had been crushed. Another duck egg rests at the bottom of the pond without any chance of successful incubation.

The ducks down at the pond are part of an eclectic habitat with koi, carp, box turtles and freshman coeds. Scott Larson, a BYU masters student in mechanical engineering said he once encountered a group of girls chasing ducks at the pond. He said they were trying to catch one so it could be used as a creative way of asking a boy to Preference. Larsen said he did not think the girls caught any.

"The ducks are a bit smarter than most of the girls," he said.

Larson said on a separate occasion he saw a duck near the pond that was injured and partially covered in blue paint.

Thus far, BYU's newest ducklings are safe and healthy.

Peterman said some of the fish in the botany pond are left over from a bio-agriculture study and others are likely to be transplants. Peterman also said the park along the south end of campus is intended as an outdoor classroom for students to get to know a variety of different trees.

BYU allows the ducks to come and go as they please, but the park environment should stay balanced, he said. Peterman said one concern he has about an overpopulation of ducks is that their droppings will make the pond a very messy place.