Charlotte County Florida Weekly

Misunderstood. Mistreated. Maligned. MUSCOVY

Fed by some, abused by others, Muscovy ducks are in Florida to stay



 

AN INEXTRICABLE PART OF Florida’s urban fabric, Muscovy ducks with their beautifully ugly faces, oddball personalities and prolific breeding abilities have a long love/hate relationship with that other invasive species: us.

“Ugly.” “Ungainly.” “Lazy.” “Bullies.” “A nuisance.” “They defecate prodigiously.” “Breed like rats.” “Not a very interesting species.” “Not that bright.” “Garbage ducks.”

These are all ways Florida’s Muscovy duck has been described —— even by people who like them — with “ugly”” being the most common.

On an adult Muscovy duck’s head, especially a male, there are “patches of red bumpy flesh surrounding its beak, eyes and face,” writes Sanibel Islander Charles Sobczak. “This warty, ungainly face looks as if the duck has just come out of a radioactive enclosure and is suffering from a bizarre mutation.”

Muscovy ducks were reported to the FWC 804 times statewide from January 2014 through February 2020. EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Muscovy ducks were reported to the FWC 804 times statewide from January 2014 through February 2020. EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

They also hiss instead of quack.

And yet in all their common strangeness, Muscovys are quite lovely after all; their strange charm to some, undeniable.

“I want him!” 2-year-old Abigail Murphy exclaimed, pointing at a big Muscovy duck who sat on the shore surrounded by white ibis. Its iridescent green feathers shimmered in the sunlight, layered with white, black and brown.

Visiting the ducks who lived off the canal behind Bayfront Health in Port Charlotte became a tradition for Abigail and her father, TJ.

“She’s absolutely in love with the ducks,” TJ said. “I mean, this is the type of stuff she’ll remember.”

Nearby, young Muscovy ducks drifted, three dark and one lighter colored. Found mostly in urban areas in Florida in canals, retention ponds in condo complexes or behind Walmarts, in gated communities, on golf courses and farms, they are both abundantly common and little-known, neighbors we haven’t cared to get to know.

Most agree that Muscovy ducks are quite cute when babies. EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Most agree that Muscovy ducks are quite cute when babies. EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Native to Central and South America and parts of southern Texas, they are considered a nonnative, invasive species by the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, although by some accounts they’ve lived here for hundreds of years. At the least, they’ve been here since the 1960s. FWC has no population projection but there are thought to be tens of thousands in Florida.

“These birds have escaped captivity or were released illegally for ornamental purposes,” FWC’s website reads.

Their status as an “invasive” or “introduced” species and their propensity for breeding has resulted in official policies that promote population control over protection. Landowners can remove them without a permit but they can’t move them to public land. That means they’re usually euthanized unless a private landowner or rare shelter will take them.

Bonita Springs resident Dan Gallagher supports FWC’s conclusions, noting that the “anthropomorphism run amok” that surrounds sometimes beloved animals such as the Muscovy may blind some to the fact that they can be a nuisance, especially in large numbers.

 

“As a lifelong member of the National Audubon (Society) and birding enthusiast I feel strongly that we must do our best to control invasive species that harm native species by crowding them out of habitat, introducing disease, and fouling ponds that are a food source for many species, including the osprey and bald eagle,” he said.

To clarify one common misconception, Muscovy ducks have not been found to spread disease to humans.

“No public health agency has any evidence that Muscovy ducks or their droppings present any health threat to human beings,” reports the Florida Department of Health in Lee County. “The sole exception is when small children, the elderly and those with immune system problems directly handle newly hatched chicks, then exposure to salmonella can occur.”

The ducks have been terribly mistreated by some over the years, though they are protected under animal cruelty rules. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that in 2015 a landscaper gunned his lawnmower over a mother duck and her ducklings, killing them while laughing. He was later arrested and charged with nine counts of animal cruelty by Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control.

A Muscovy duck family always seem to be present at all the shows, greenmarkets and events at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. VANDY MAJOR / FLORIDA WEEKLY

A Muscovy duck family always seem to be present at all the shows, greenmarkets and events at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. VANDY MAJOR / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Broward County resident Eunice Sivertsen said Muscovy ducks are now at risk of being harassed by school children with time off during the coronavirus crisis — long a common occurrence during summer breaks.

“Kids are off school and things are happening to the ducks like shooting them with pellet guns and things like that,” she said. “You know people are getting stir crazy and the kids are getting — I know my great-grandkids live here, the three of them, and they go stir crazy. Luckily, they have a backyard with swings.”

Ms. Sivertsen, who is 82, is the longtime founder and operator of Duck Haven, which has taken in injured Muscovy ducks from all over Florida for more than 40 years. She is currently not accepting new ducks to avoid contact with people per social distancing guidelines.

Muscovy duck crossing: Having a certain population of ducks in your neighborhood may be desirable, and not only for their quirky beauty and oddball personalities. AXEL RADDATZ / SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY

Muscovy duck crossing: Having a certain population of ducks in your neighborhood may be desirable, and not only for their quirky beauty and oddball personalities. AXEL RADDATZ / SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY

While they’re stuck at home, her granddaughter and great-grandchildren have enjoyed the ducks, which are cared for on her property.

“My granddaughter has been helping me since she was 8 years old,” Ms. Sivertsen said. “And her kids love the ducks. I have a 7-year-old little boy and a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old and even the 1-year- old, she’ll come and see the ducks from the patio door. She just loves them. Which is good because it teaches them to respect animals.”

Ms. Sivertsen’s granddaughter, Melissa Santarcangelo, now 32, grew up around the ducks.

“I think they’re really just misunderstood,” she said. “You know a lot of people think they’re dirty. They’re no dirtier than someone’s dog going to the bathroom on your yard. In reality they’re not. They don’t carry diseases.”

 

Outside such protective households, which is to say nearly everywhere, Muscovy advocates argue that their status as an invasive nuisance makes them vulnerable to mistreatment.

“There are people who hate these ducks and are just unbelievably brutal and cruel to them,” said Don Anthony, a spokesperson for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida in Fort Lauderdale. “They not just chase them but kill them. Some people purposely run them over when they see them in the street.”

FWC says the ducks have often divided residents who adore them as colorful wildlife or hate them, perhaps most of all for their prodigious pooping abilities. In smaller numbers they are relatively harmless, going about their business dabbling in the water, probing the soil for insects or other foods, or of course mating.

Muscovy ducks were reported to the FWC 804 times statewide from January 2014 through February 2020. Palm Beach County had the most reports of any county during that time with 185, followed by Hillsborough County with 105. Lee County had 74, Collier 31 and Charlotte 12.

One of the few researchers to begin studying Florida populations of Muscovy ducks, Jacqueline Perry Cahanin graduated in May 2017 from the University of South Florida in Tampa with an M.S. in environmental science.

“They are kind of lazy,” she admitted, though she grew fond of them during the course of her research.

Her graduate thesis, “Abundance and Habitat Preferences of Introduced Muscovy Ducks (Cairina moschata)” aimed to “assist land managers and property owners with habitat modifications in preventing or controlling nuisance Muscovy populations.”

Along with everyone reached for this story — those who advocate strict population control and those who seek to protect the ducks and those who believe in both — Ms. Cahanin implored people not to feed them. That can result in exploding populations, causing more environmental problems and conflicts with people, and ultimately leading to more euthanized ducks.

“They have plenty of food,” she said.

Duck Haven

Eunice Sivertsen is Florida’s — and perhaps the world’s — most dedicated Muscovy duck activist, spokesperson and caretaker. She founded the nonprofit Duck Haven, a shelter for Muscovy ducks at her home in Margate more than 40 years ago after moving here from Long Island.

“I think that the ducks keep me young,” she said.

She currently cares for 78 permanently injured and disabled ducks — six of which are blind and two with one leg — and 50 ducklings. However with a houseful of family and Ms. Sivertsen in her 80s, Duck Haven is not accepting new ducks deliveries at this time because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Over the years she has taken in Muscovy ducks from all over South Florida, including Palm Beach County, Naples and the CROW clinic on Sanibel Island. Ms. Sivertsen and her veterinarian can restore some injured ducks back to health. She has a network of private farms, including in West Palm Beach, where she is often able to move healthy Muscovy ducks.

“We can do that with permission of the owner as long as they don’t leave there,” she said.

It is not uncommon for CROW clinic on Sanibel to treat Muscovy ducks after they have been hit by a car, but the nonprofit either takes them to Duck Haven or another private landowner where they won’t escape into the wild. Otherwise they are euthanized.

“Both state and federal regulations prohibit the release of Muscovy ducks, so they must be kept in a captive situation where they will not come into contact with native wildlife and will not escape captivity once they have been captured,” wrote Dr. Heather Barron, CROW medical and research director. “In the case of young, healthy Muscovy ducks brought to the clinic, we are sometimes able to find a permanent home for them as required by these regulations.”

Ms. Sivertsen started Duck Haven after watching a man drowning baby ducks and beating their mother, she said, in a lake near her home. Back in Long Island, she and her late husband had raised foster children, she recalled, and when they came to Florida, the ducks felt to her a little bit like that.

“I guess when I moved down here I took a liking to these ducks and I could see how when I would go out to rescue one, people said, ‘They’re garbage ducks, they’re nuisance ducks,’” she said. “That made it even more of a challenge for me to protect these ducks that so many people disliked.”

The Muscovy population, like other animals, increasingly competes for space with people. They’ve often found themselves the targets of homeowners and condo associations, and other places that typically hire trappers to remove them.

Since moving them to public land is illegal, finding private landowners to take in unwanted Muscovy families can be difficult.

Instead, FWC allows “humane” euthanizing of the ducks, by trappers or by residents who find the ducks on their property. That’s what usually happens.

Patrick Gibson, owner of Professional Wildlife Removal, said he prefers that the ducks are taken to a private farm instead of being euthanized. If they are, his preferred method is exposing the ducks to carbon dioxide in a cage.

“It’s the least torturous method,” he said. The duck “goes in there basically, falls asleep and that’s it.”

Noel Hanson, owner of Animal Rangers based in Port St. Lucie does duck removals throughout South Florida.

“Here they’re extremely abundant,” he said. “The biggest problem with them overall is they’re very prolific, especially if people are feeding them. The other problem with them is they defecate extensively — much more, so it seems, than other water fowl.

“They’re more like chickens and roosters and that’s the way I view them. I view Muscovy ducks like as a farm animal, not a wild animal.”

Instead of calling trappers who usually euthanize the ducks, Ms. Sivertsen and others recommend controlling populations first by not feeding them.

People also can remove eggs from their nest and destroy the eggs. USF graduate Ms. Cahanin suggested that you “addle” the eggs to destroy the embryo and then replace them in the nest so the mother won’t realize they’re dead. Mr. Gallagher in Bonita Springs suggests icing down Muscovy nests, which he believes has helped reduce the population in his community to an acceptable level.

“I have added to my methods of egg control the dumping of a bucket of ice on the nest after all eggs have been laid,” he wrote. “It reduces the temperature of the egg low enough to stop development. The ice melts and the hen returns without noting any change.”

On the other hand, having a certain population of Muscovy ducks in your neighborhood may also be desirable, and not only for their quirky beauty and oddball personalities.

“It’s very healthy to have a certain number of Muscovy ducks in your neighborhood because they eat roaches, palmetto bugs, mosquitos, all kinds of creatures we really don’t want,” Mr. Anthony said. “And if you don’t feed them — I’ve seen them walk through my front yard. They forage for food and they move on.”

The ducks once brought joy to Naples resident Mary Jane Briggs and her grandchildren in her Tall Pines neighborhood — but also a lot of poop in her driveway, she said, “bless their little hearts.”

“It all started when my grandchildren were still young and would come to me after school and of course the mamas would be around the neighborhood with the baby ducks and they wanted to feed them and that started the process, and once you start feeding ducks, that’s an ongoing thing.”

Before long, she counted 32 ducks feeding in her driveway every day.

“I loved watching them,” she said. “I loved watching the babies grow up and a lot of the ducks almost became like pets, but then I didn’t like dealing with all the aftermath of having all the ducks on my driveway.”

Either Mother Nature or perhaps the otters that live in Tall Pines eventually caused a reduction in population, she believes. Maybe the ducks left on their own.

Many communities have their own Muscovy rules. In Lee County, Animal Services has the authority to “declare Muscovy ducks to be a public nuisance” and may “break the eggs and humanely euthanize the ducks” if they are found to be so.

It also reads, “The possession of or feeding of Muscovy ducks on public property and private property zoned residential is hereby prohibited.”

While the ducks may be considered “invasive,” they’ve been here longer than many people who live in South Florida. Mr. Anthony blamed their sometimes undesirable status on people feeding them.

“See, we create the problem and then we kill the ducks as if it’s their fault,” he said. ¦

— This story was first published in Florida Weekly in 2017. It was updated for publication this week.

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