Althouse: What duck?

May 19, 2026

What duck?

Grok insists this interesting character is a "mutt duck," the offspring of a mallard and a "fancy/ornamental duck" that some human took the liberty to release into the local environment.

If you like the music Meade chose for this video, listen to more of Stephen Spencer here. He gets the lyrics from the stories his 3-year-old daughter tells.

27 comments:

Dave Begley said...: Is the daughter of Stephen Spencer sharing co-writer credits and royalties?; 5/19/26, 8:56 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: That's one puffed up duck.; 5/19/26, 8:56 AM
Narr said...: Dave Begley, Stroller-chaser!; 5/19/26, 9:26 AM
tcrosse said...: Speaking of bird reproduction, in Barcelona bird feed is being laced with a contraceptive, to reduce populations without killing the animals; 5/19/26, 9:30 AM
David53 said...: It’s really amazing what you can do with a smart phone. I used to lug around a 35mm camera with a telephoto lens to get still shots like that. 30 years ago we thought home personal computers were incredible, where do we go from here?; 5/19/26, 9:41 AM
Wince said...: The song that immediately came to my mind was Ted Nugent's "Mutt Duck Fever."; 5/19/26, 10:02 AM
Quaestor said...: I agree with Grok. The instant I saw that critter, I thought that's some sort of hybrid. However, hybridization in the wild is far more common than most people suspect, so blaming the mutt duck's presence in Lake Mendota on a careless human duck fancier may be jumping to conclusions. There is an evolutionary advantage to the avian propensity to hybridize. In general, hybrids are either better adapted to a given environment or substantially less adapted than the foundation species. If better adapted, those genes will eventually spread into the general population if the crossing produces a fertile offspring. If the hybrid is less well-adapted to local conditions or is sterile, its presence reduces predation pressure on the foundation species.; 5/19/26, 10:04 AM
John henry said...: Odd how memory works. I saw tha mutt duck and remembered a Calypso from the 70s about Miss Mutt Duck.

Could Grok find it based on a few misrememebered words from the refrain of a 50 yr old song from st Vincent?

Why, yes it can and it can even find it on YouTube
https://youtu.be/JpFbft3W0mI?si=--EdPbLNugiVmtXH

Though it is Miss Must Duck, not mutt duck.

Grok is amazing.

John Henry; 5/19/26, 10:05 AM
Quaestor said...: Hybrid vigor is a somewhat dubious concept. It arose in the 19th century as an argument against the linebreeding in domesticated livestock, which was a virtual mania during the Victorian era. Whether you're talking about a horse, cattle, or a dog breed, the odds are that breed existed only conjecturally before 1840, when studbooks and linebreeding took off for a fair thee well. Read Darwin's seminal book in detail, not just the excerpts. Almost every observation Darwin theorizes from is taken from the breeding of domestic pigeons.; 5/19/26, 10:16 AM
Quaestor said...: "Speaking of bird reproduction, in Barcelona bird feed is being laced with a contraceptive, to reduce populations without killing the animals."

A little bird tells me that the Catalans are in for a big surprise.; 5/19/26, 10:23 AM
Quaestor said...: It is sometimes argued that allowing domestic breeds to mingle with their wild relatives endangers the wild population. Perhaps it does in some cases. However, among birds it doesn't appear to have any lasting effect. Domestic genomes do not contain any sequences that do not appear in the foundation species. (Or didn't before the advent of genetic engineering, which is probable the most cogent non-insane case against GMOs.) Domestic genomes contain concentration of sequences that produce desirable traits, whatever that means. The ideal sheep is the exceptional individual out on the ends of the bell curve, which means those desirable traits come from recessive sequences that would be quickly diluted if set to compete against the dominant traits seen in the foundation group. Furthermore, reproductive fidelity even among species that mate for life is less common than we usually assume. The presence of an attractive fancy duck among a population of wild mallard drakes doesn't seem to reduce the crop of mallard ducklings hatched and fledged. The drakes just aren't busy enough to avoid the occasional fling.; 5/19/26, 10:48 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: The canonical question is not What Duck?, it is "Why a duck?"; 5/19/26, 10:55 AM
Lazarus said...: So "yacht rock" is now rebranded as "duck rock"?; 5/19/26, 11:08 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Not "what duck", but "why a duck?"; 5/19/26, 11:11 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Fred, I missed it "by this much".; 5/19/26, 11:13 AM
Meade said...: https://youtu.be/GTiOETaZg4w; 5/19/26, 11:16 AM
rhhardin said...: Ducks mate with pretty much anything.

from rec.birds, long ago

"The other day I noticed a female mallard hit by a car in the middle median in the road. 2 males were standing by her, one was frantically trying to nudge her to get her to move. I never knew ducks had "emotional" ties to their mates. I've heard that Canada Geese mate for life. Do mallards do the same? (Before I could turn around and move the body to the grass on the side of the road, so the two doting males didn't get hit, someone else moved her.)"

"I hate to burst your bubble, but they were trying to mate with her. Ducks only mate for one season (they pair up in winter with the drake following the hen back to her natal site). Once the hen is on eggs the drake is free to seek other copulations. You frequently see several drakes chasing a hapless female in hopes of a copulation. The drakes you saw were trying to seek more ova to be joined with their sperm and the fact that she was dead probably escaped their attention.-- "; 5/19/26, 11:16 AM
Narr said...: Don't get caught in bed with a live boy or a dead duck?; 5/19/26, 11:18 AM
Iman said...: Howard? Is that you!?!?; 5/19/26, 11:20 AM
Meade said...: Sometimes, I swear Quaestor ⬆️ and Hank Green, host of SciShow, is one and the same.; 5/19/26, 11:22 AM
Meade said...: Or maybe two wrinkled peas in a pod.; 5/19/26, 11:24 AM
amr said...: I concur with Grok: Half-domestic Mallard (domestic Ducks are almost all derived from Mallards...). The color pattern and shape indicate domestic stock, though I don't know the breeds well enough to conjecture.

More info here: https://www.10000birds.com/manky-mallards-domestic-feral-or-just-plain-odd-mallards.htm

I believe that the only domestic ducks that are not derived from Mallards are domesticated Muscovy Ducks (which are native to Central and South America, not Moscow).; 5/19/26, 11:36 AM
Iman said...: Viaduct, vhy not a chicken misses the point entirely.

This sad spectacle represents the Remains of Jim Crow, Esq.; 5/19/26, 11:38 AM
Saint Croix said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/19/26, 1:47 PM
Enigma said...: Just a mallard covered in duck tape.; 5/19/26, 2:39 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: It’s probably just a standard mallard that the local frat boys caught and touched up with some grease paint to mess with Madison bird watchers.; 5/19/26, 3:35 PM
n.n said...: Black-wing is seriously quacked.; 5/19/26, 4:27 PM