Feeding bread to ducks is a bad idea on many levels, says Steve Carr, a biologist at Memorial University in the eastern city of St. John’s.
As the weather warms up, Canadians get outdoors and some of them like to feed animals. Often signs warn against it. Some towns and cities ban it and impose fines on those who disobey.
For those who still ignore the warnings, Carr offers four compelling reasons to stop feeding bread to ducks:
Ducklings given bread may not learn foraging behaviour and become dependent on people.
Bread does not provide good nutrition and will make ducks fat.
Bread can cause a duck’s fecal material to grow botulism bacteria which can then infect the ducks. The infection can wipe out a whole colony of waterfowl.
Bread can sink to the bottom of the pond, rot and possibly change the ecosystem.
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