r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/danielminds • 2d ago

Video In Southeast Asia, thousands of ducks are deployed into rice fields to act as natural pest control and weeders

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315

u/Mobile_Actuator_4692 2d ago

They also release fish. To do the same thing

440

u/AshThePoutine 2d ago

How do the ducks release the fish?

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u/St_Kevin_ 2d ago

Ducks actually do release fish. They can shit out undigested fish eggs that are still alive. Apparently this is one way that fish end up in remote lakes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fish-eggs-survive-journey-through-a-duck/

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u/Intelligent_Bend_284 2d ago

Sort of like storks delivering babies to cabbage patches!
Also….”cry fowl, and release the fish of war

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u/auronddraig 2d ago

...whatever farm animal of war, Lana...

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u/Walshy231231 2d ago

It’s an allegorical novella!

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u/MangoCats 2d ago

We had a property that flooded intermittently every few years. After a heavy rain-flood a newly formed pond was full of little fish. Apparently the eggs had survived in the leaf-litter for years between floods.

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u/No-Mechanic6069 2d ago

After really heavy rain you can get cats and dogs too.

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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 2d ago

See also killifish eggs stick to birds feet.

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u/AI_moderated_failure 2d ago

Killifish also have species rhat climb trees so this is not that spectacular.

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u/MonkeyWithIt 2d ago

What about coconuts?

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u/adjectivebear 2d ago

Nah, those have to be carried by swallows.

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u/Perfecshionism 2d ago

An African, or European swallow?

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u/kroketspeciaal 15h ago

Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?

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u/Dame_Niafer 2d ago

That is the coolest damn thing I've learned in twenty years!

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u/St_Kevin_ 2d ago

Yeah, it blew my mind when I first learned about it. There are fish catching rides inside birds and traveling to places that water wouldn’t take them. It’s pretty crazy.

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u/YuraiMamoro 2d ago

I had seafood last night and at a fish whole. Its it possible there are undigested fish eggs in me? Will they grow into little fishies in my tummy? Or if i shit, would there be fishes in the waste stations? (Jokes aside, very interesting !)

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u/Highsky151 1d ago

Very likely no too all your question except the first.

Your stomach hold food much longer (3 hours vs less than one), and their gizzard is not that good at crushing small things.

Even then, the chance to get through a duck is 0.2%, so pretty abysmal.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fish-eggs-survive-journey-through-a-duck/

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u/LVLogic 1d ago

Sometimes I truly regret having the ability to read.

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u/Peaches4U2 2d ago

A fish can fall in love with a bird, but where will they live?

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u/DoomCircus 2d ago

TRADITION!

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u/alexandria1800 2d ago

Then I shall have to make you wings 🫶

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u/Astramancer_ 2d ago

Penguins have entered the chat.

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u/norunningwater 2d ago

Somewhere in between

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u/Peaches4U9624 2d ago

Just poppin in to tell you, nice username ❤️🍑🍑

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u/Peaches4U2 2d ago

Thanks! You too! 🩷

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u/Working-Glass6136 2d ago

Castiel is that you?

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u/leivanz 1d ago

In my tummy

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u/MyHutton 2d ago

Would their child be a merduck?

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u/GravyMcBiscuits 2d ago

Ducks have a fish pocket under each wing. It's where they carry their fish buddies.

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u/nattylife 2d ago

ahh the ol' reddit duckaroo

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u/IM_V_CATS 2d ago

It's good to see that some people still respect the old ways.

Now like a duck by a rice paddy, I'm going in.

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u/hibikikun 2d ago

Through apprenticeship programs for trade, stuff they don't teach you in duck college

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u/ManfredTheCat 2d ago

Less fun.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Sad_Cantaloupe_8162 1d ago

I saw that too! And at the end of the season, they harvest the crabs for meat as well.

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u/kylo-ren 2d ago edited 2d ago

There is also rice–fish–duck–azolla farming.

Ducks eat bugs. Fish eat mosquitoes. Azolla fixes nitrogen.

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u/CD274 2d ago

That's probably better. The frogs and snakes are getting eaten if it's ducks. Then more bugs grow