Animals are unique in their own way. Even though we
underestimate their intelligence, trust me, they’re way better than us in every
way.
Would you look after an accidentally-found baby as he/she is
your own, without feeling any difference? Well, most probably, it’s impossible.
Therefore, to prove that animals are better than human, a Florida woman has
evidence.
Laurie Wolf found an owl and a duckling living together in
her backyard. She, being a wildlife artist and an amateur photographer, she
sent the photos of these bizarre relationship to the national geographic.
She confesses that this connection is astonishing and stills
she cannot believe it.
The first time she noticed an Eastern Shriek own in a
home box she has in her patio. After a month, she has noticed that owl had found
a companion, which made her think it as a baby owl.
This selfless mother owl decided to raise the duckling as
it’s her own. This duckling turned out
to be a wood duck, a type that is known to live with shriek owls.
However, this connection feared Laurie as the duckling would
be a prey of the owl , one day. So, she contacted the local bird expert to get
it confirmed. According to him, she has a valid fear. Hence, she contacted a
wild life sanctuary to request whether they could take the duckling and they
agreed.
Laurie and her husband tried to capture the duckling as it
jumped out of the box and headed to a pond. It was the last day they saw it.
According to Laurie, the intention of the owl is not clear,
yet she says it might be a positive one, that the owl willingly adopted the
duckling as its own.
The Manitoba director of Bird Sanctuary Canada, Christian
Astuso explains this phenomena of wood duck birds as ‘brood paratism’ It’s a common
fact that wood ducks are fond of laying eggs in different places. They often
lay eggs in other birds’ nests hoping that the genes will enter the next
generation.
He recalls an incident in 2007, where an owl incubated and
hatched three wood ducklings. Furthermore, he says that, it’s hard to
understand what the owl is thinking. But it might be the case what the
scientists call as supernormal stimuli, which makes female owls nurture the egg
without paying attention to where it came from.
Artuso further explains that, the duckling might have
survived as they are precarious, means they are highly independent animals. He
further says that there are many documented cases of chicks from one brood end
up in another brood.
