Young Mallard Ducks

[Juno]

We have five 4 month old Mallard ducks in the grounds of our Park Home, they have been abandoned by their Mother and are now very tame with the people feeding them here. Unfortunately, the local fox has discovered their whereabouts and has taken one; there was six and now we are down to five. I would like to know if we could safely remove them to a lake about three miles away where there are other ducks. Would they be able to survive as they have only known this Park environment and are not river-wise.

[Kozmic Blues]

It would be better if you could find them a new home instead of leaving them at a lake.
Try and get in contact with a bird society or the RSPCA.

[Juno]

Thanks Kozmic Blues I'll give that a try.

[Thunderbird+]

I would think at four months old they would be fairly street-wise by now and best left to fend for themselves. the other lake may also have foxes too, I've often seen large numbers of ducklings in my local park reduced to just a few and I just put it down to 'the survival of the fittest' a sad but true fact of nature.

[mangetoute]

its not forced to be the fox that will get them,crows take them as well infact the crows will get more than the fox,i've seen it with own eyes not a pleasent site,move them if you feel its best.saftey in numbers?.

[Catso]

Really, they've been lucky so far. I used to live near a river, the ducks usually hatched 6 to 8 chicks. But over the weeks, the numbers were gradually whittled away. Some 'families' were completely wiped out - none left. Usually, it got down to 1-3 surviving before they got so big you couldn't tell them all apart.

Nature red in tooth and claw.

To answer the Q, they would probably be OK, yes. It depends upon whether they have been relying completely on hand-outs (which is unlikely) or been getting food for themselves as well.

There may be initial squabbling, but they'll sort it all out.