Can ducks smell?

W

Worth Mathewson

Active member
Ray P. Holland, in his book, Shotgunning In The Lowlands, had a chapter on if a duck could smell or not. And if they could smell hunters. He gave several examples of individuals who thought they could. Several gave the black duck high marks for smell, and using it to avoid hunters. Holland didn't buy into any of that. He just thought it was interesting that some people did.
Ok. Over the years, when I have been in the field for a week or more, I certainly have had a strong odor. I haven't noticed that ducks or geese noticed it. ( On several occasions my wife certainly did!) So I go along with Holland, in that ducks aren't put off due to a human's smell. But in the January/February issue of AUDUBON there is a highly interesting article based around bird's sense of smell. They can, and some very well. A few examples: It has been shown that turkey vultures can smell carrion a mile or more away. In 1965 Bernice Wenzel showed how pigeons could smell. She found that every time she exposed the birds to scented air, their heart rate went up. Over the next 25 years she conduced tests on a raven, a turkey vulture, mallard, canaries, bobwhite quail, and black vented shearwaters. All birds showed some kind of olfactory functions.
She showed that one species, the wandering albatross, are "feathered bloodhounds" that can follow their nose to food some 12 miles from their starting point, zigzagging upwind to keep track of the patchy odor plume. And that blue tits will refuse to enter their nest box when they catch a whiff of the chemical cue to weasels.
So is it possible that ducks can indeed smell us? If so that goes a long way explaining why flocks of pintails circle 55 times before leaving. I might try scent lock gear next year. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
Birds are for the most part (vultures and other already noted the exception) very visually and orally centered when it comes to taking cues from the environment.
Based on what I know about waterfowl biology and brain structure, I doubt their sense of smell play much if any role in predator avoidance or any other aspect of their daily lives, even feeding.
 
Thanks a lot Carl, I thought I was just a hunter who harvested a few game birds now and then. Turns out I'm a predator as well. :>) :>)
 
Worth, it is well known that some birds do have the ability to smell and use it to find food. I think that may be weakly developed in ducks (I presume that is your primary question) but I doubt that they use it much to find food and not at all for predator avoidance. Now if you are worried about a vulture thinking you are week-old road kill because you have been hunting for 10 days straight...don't worry, they aren't attracted to the smell of cigars and scotch.

As for those pintails circling 55 times before deciding to fly off, I think thats a result on the intense hunting pressure they have experienced through the whole hunting season and being somewhat wary ducks. The seasons in the north start September 1st and go continuously til late January. If people chased you with guns for 5 months straight you'd be wary of sauntering up to strangers too!
 
So is it possible that ducks can indeed smell us? If so that goes a long way explaining why flocks of pintails circle 55 times before leaving. I might try scent lock gear next year. Best, Worth Mathewson
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I'd try the opposite approach Worth. Why not smell like something ducks are attracted to rather than covering up your smell with scentlok? I have no idea what that smell might be but it is another way of looking at the issue.

Mark W
 
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I'm asking for it for Christmas!!!!
 
This would be a good grad student question. I think they certainly can smell or their nostrils on their bills wouldn't be as pronounced for their size. Cut a head down the center and pay attention to how complex their sinus cavities are formed in their heads. Also how can a few birds using a corn pile or grain field turn into thousands if they can't smell or actually communicate in some fashion?
 
Just don't use that Scent Killer body soap, it's hell on your skin. If your hunting Mallards, use "Wonder Bread Scent" they should drop right into the blind, and Bite you to death.
 
Mike and Vince, Thanks very much for a better idea than scent lock. Next season I plan to take the clam oil I used for my raccoon trapping, put it in a spray bottle and cover my parka while bluebill hunting. While ducks may or may not have a great sense of smell, they will smell that! It is so strong it isn't for a weak stomach. Then for mallards, rather than Wonder Bread, I think I will get my wife to put a bunch of corn in the blender to see if she can get a juice out of it. If so, it will also go into a spray bottle. Who knows, I might even make the OUTDOOR CHANNEL. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
I found the topic interesting enough to snoop around the internet. I found the following article on the Stanford website. Although it doesn't specifically mention ducks I thought it might be worth sharing.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Avian_Sense.html

The Avian Sense of Smell

Most birds are primarily "sight animals" as their superb eyes, colorful plumage, and nonacoustic signals attest. But their sense of hearing is obviously also very acute -- as in the case of night-hunting owls, which use sound to locate their prey. Most birds seemingly would have little use for smell; in the airy treetops odors disperse quickly and would be of minimal help in locating obstacles, prey, enemies, or mates. Yet the apparatus for detecting odors is present in the nasal passages of all birds. Based on the relative size of the brain center used to process information on odors, physiologists expect the sense of smell to be well developed in rails, cranes, grebes, and nightjars and less developed in passerines, woodpeckers, pelicans, and parrots. By recording the electrical impulses transmitted through the bird's olfactory nerves, physiologists have documented some of the substances that birds as diverse as sparrows, chickens, pigeons, ducks, shearwaters, albatrosses, and vultures are able to smell.

The sense of smell seems better developed in some avian groups than others. Kiwis, the flightless birds that are the national symbol of New Zealand, appear to sniff out their earthworm prey. Sooty Shearwaters and Northern Fulmars are attracted from downwind to the smell of fish oils, squid, and krill, and when tested, investigate the area around a wick releasing such odorants. Other tubenoses such as the Ashy Storm-Petrel and Pink-footed Shearwater are also attracted to the same stimuli.

When they return at night from foraging in the Bay of Fundy, Leach's Storm-Petrels appear to use odor to locate their burrows on forested Kent Island, New Brunswick. They first hover above the thick spruce-fir canopy before plummeting to the forest floor in the vicinity of their burrows. Then they walk upwind to them, often colliding with obstacles on the way. In one experiment the storm-petrels moved toward a stream of air passing over materials from their own burrow, rather than one passing over similar materials from the forest floor. In another experiment, individuals whose nostrils were plugged or whose olfactory nerves had been severed were unable to find their way back to their burrows. These results suggest that the storm-petrels locate their burrows by smell where there is heavy forest cover; they do not seem to use smell to find their burrows on unforested Pacific Islands. Interestingly, there is also some evidence that the smells in air currents near their lofts help pigeons navigate.

There has been a long controversy over the degree to which vultures use odor to help them find food. Mostly the argument has been over whether sight or smell is more important, but it has also been suggested, by those with a flair for the absurd, that vultures listen for the noise of the chewing of carrion-feeding rodents or insects or even use an as yet undiscovered sense. Nonetheless, the sight-odor argument remains unsettled. While Turkey Vultures, for example, seem to have a good sense of smell, quite likely it is not good enough to detect the stench of decomposing food from their foraging altitudes. Experiments have shown that their threshold for detecting the odors of at least three different products of decay is too high to permit sniff location from high altitude. Whether or not the birds are more sensitive to the smells of other components of decomposition remains to be determined. More work will need to be done before we know whether vultures use sight or smell or both to locate the dead animals they feed on.
 
Like the wonder bread idea. Anything involving corn is probably considered baiting :)

They must like cigars ,ducks swim past our blind well prior to legal 3 guys, two dogs,coffee .
 
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I am certain that Turkey Vultures can smell.
I believe that part of their M.O. allows them better opportunities to smell.


As the thermals form against the hillsides and roadways where roadkill is, It also allows them to vector in on certain areas.


As they ride the currents and rising air, they can focus for visible carrion.
so that ups the odds of a successful ride aloft.




If the thermal is a bust, they will move on to the next one (once they have altitude)






So their vision as well as their ability to smell, allows them to scrutinize their ascent in that particular rising air mass.




As they coast down, they will focus on rivers and roadways looking for signs of car strikes and dead stuff on shore.
 
I have not doubts about turkey and black vultures ability to smell being very acute. I have a large roost next door and they will hang out in my yard when I do not bury the entrails and other unedible portions of game in the compost pile. My pile is not the average homeowner pile and any to be composted additives usually covered with 12-18" of leaves and then finished compost atop for another six inches.

Ducks and geese around here love to feed in fields after the manure spreader drops it load. They love to pick the corn out of the fresh cow manure. Seeing that seems to be their prime rib dinner bell I cannot see how they have any sense of smell.
 
Worth,
I think you will have cats swimming out to you if you use some of the fishy coon lures I've smelled. With all the geese I see sitting on sewer lagoons it makes me wonder if eating mexican food the night before a hunt would be a good idea.

Tim
 
Worth I started to bring this up on another thread. My first wife's father was a waterman and market hunter on the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. Before he died, I spent many long evenings listening to his stories. He and many of his friends felt strongly that waterfowl had a sense of smell. I also collect books old books on waterfowling and there are several old texts including Walsh's book Outlaw Gunner that make reference to this. From what I can tell this theory started with the night gunners and baiters.
 
A lot of goose vocalizations center on minor territorial disputes over food-feeding geese bring more geese in search of food...
 
Turkey Vultures never leave this part of western NY. I was very surprised to see that the first year I was here. 40+ vultures need a lot of carrion to survive the winter. My guess is that since there are more cows than people in our county. When cows die the vultures do their Job, as intended.

Years ago as we were driving a steep 4WD two track, down to trout fish. The high side on the passenger side had a large dead deer laying there, very close to the vehicle. As we passed by, a Turkey Vulture came out of the chest cavity, and flew away. I can still hear my then girlfriends Loud Screams. I will never forget that sight.

Never thought about Wonder Bread vs Corn, from the bait angle. Must be why they sell bread "Where Ducks Walk On Fish", in western Pa instead of corn........
 
Don't know if ducks can smell,but they certainly DO smell. Especially sea ducks. My wife is always reminding not to sit on the couch after some time in the shop. "you smell like a old squaw in those clothes"
 
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