Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/14/2009

Question
We live on the river in London, Ontario.  Lots of ducks and Canada geese.  Yesterday we were watching people feed the ducks and suddenly 3 males took off after a female.  They flew around until she apparently got tired and landed in the water.  The males pounced on her.  For about 10 minutes the males were surrounding her and more males were joining in.  There were at least 10 males involved by the time they had drifted out of sight down river.  Were they all attempting to mate with her?  Were they trying to kill her for some reason?  There were plenty of females around so its not as if the males couldn't find a mate of their own.  I saw something similar years ago too.  
Thanks,
Tony

Answer
I've received some version of this question four or five times in the past week or so. These are most likely "bachelor" Mallard males trying to mate with a female. Sometimes this is described as Mallard rape. They were not trying to kill her but sometimes that inadvertently happens. You didn't say they were Mallards, but I bet that was the case.