FowlBlog.com

The week on FOX marks the season premier of the popular cartoon comedy block known as Animation Domination.  This TGIF of raunchy cartoons serves a weekly staple for college kids across the country.

Animation Domination, which is now 75% created by Seth Macfarlane. Hang on tight Matt Groening!

The main change to the line up is that Mike Judge’s down home style King of the Hill is no longer.  FOX has filled the vacancy with yet another one of Seth MacFarlane‘s animated attempts at Family-Guy-but-with-different-characters in The Cleveland Show.

You can catch all the episodes on Hulu, which in my opinion were quite entertaining, especially the highly unique episode of Family Guy.

Some of the most astute of cartoon viewers may have noticed a recurring joke that arced from The Cleveland Show to American Dad.  MacFarlane, who is most notable for his hodge-podge of obscure cultural nods and references, recreated a familiar movie scene in two of his premiers.

Here we have a duck crossing in American Dad as some Vietnam War reenacters pause their intense combat display to admire some mallard ducklings.

We are all familiar with the movie and TV joke of the ducks crossing.  Characters are somehow speeding down the road, only to come to a screeching halt at the sight of a mother and her ducklings crossing the road.  This is usually followed by a cutesy comment that is ironic given the character’s normal disposition.

It is funny because no matter what the scenario, humans will drop whatever they’re doing to allow the adorable ducklings to cross their path.  This cultural reference seems to expose a soft spot in the human psyche for ducklings.  The insertion of a duck crossing scene into an inopportune time makes us smile and chuckle.  Scene’s such as this are reminiscent of the common Springtime local news story of a person going out of their way to assist a mother and her ducklings.

Here we have some ducklings crossing the road in The Cleveland Show, right after Cleveland pulls and aggressive u-turn on the road. Anyone know what duck breed this is supposed to be?

It is interesting to see how frequently this gag is used throughout American entertainment.  We are compiling a list all the Duck Crossing scenes in TV and movies.  Can you think of any?  Please tell us in the comment boxes below.

Short answer - No, never.

A sign from Waneka Lake in Lafayette, CO

Long answer – You should never feed ducks bread, whether they are wild or domestic. It is very damaging to a flock, and potentially devastating to an overall ecosystem.

Here is the explanation of how feeding ducks bread is damaging, for both wild and domestic flocks

Wild – Wild ducks are not pet ducks.  They do not need to have human interference with their food sources.  Furthermore, they can easily become reliant on humans tossing them bread, and neglect their foraging skills to naturally acquire food.  This has to potential to knock an entire ecosystem out of balance, as the food chain will become altered by the introduction of a new food source.

Domestic – Obviously, your pet mallards are already reliant on you for their food.  While they may have foraging skills, they already depend on you for their sustenance.  Is bread okay then?  No, not at all.  The reasoning here is that bread is not an adequate source of nutrition for ducks.  It does not contain the protein levels and nutritional diversity that waterfowl need to thrive.

Furthermore, ducks have a trait which causes them to stop eating once they are full, they won’t overeat, regardless of how much actual nutrition they’ve acquired (perhaps it would be good if some humans developed this).  Thus, they’ll fill themselves up on bread, and ignore the other food available to them once they’re full.  This will yield an undernourished flock.

Now most of us grew up feeding ducks and other birds bread when we were kids.  It was an engaging and simple way to interact with wildlife.  However, as our conscious evolves to better understand our impact on the environment, it has become painfully apparant just how improper it is to feed wildlife.  We must ignore some of the fond memories that we’ve had with this practice, and learn to love and enjoy waterfowl and other animals through observation, not interaction.