Owl Mistakes Duck Egg For Her Own And Raises It

Animals are hilarious, kind, and intelligent at the same time, and sometimes, I believe they can outsmart and even out human us. Animals can be very loving and kind, the duo a Florida woman discovered in her backyard proves this.Laurie Wolf found an owl and a duckling living in her Jupiter, Florida backyard. A wildlife artist and amateur photographer, she took a picture of them and sent it to the National Geographic.

"I don't think I'll ever experience anything like that in my life again." While we cannot be sure that we understand the motivation of the duo, we want to see it from a positive perspective, that the owl was happy to adopt its unexpected delivery.Christian Artuso, the Manitoba director of Bird Studies Canada, explains that wood duck birds practice "brood parasitism."The phenomenon is apparently not that uncommon as wood duck birds are not fond of laying all their eggs in one place. They will often lay them in other bird's nests in the hope that some will hatch and that the genes will enter the next generation. Artuso said: 'It's not commonly documented, but it certainly happens.' He recalled an incident in 2007 when an owl incubated and hatched three wood duck chicks."You could think of it as not keeping all your eggs in one basket. If you spread your eggs out, then your chances of passing on your genes are increased slightly, especially if you lose your own eggs to a predator."