There is no such thing as a silly question?

My wife thinks she has ALL the answers. She is actually stumped on this question.

A bit of background. We feed a herd (bevy, bunch, group, flock) of ducks, four to be exact. Formerly tame ducks who got dumped at the lake. These ducks can be nowhere to be seen, yet when we enter the park, and the wheels of the "Bentley Buggy" start crunching on gravel, those ducks come waddling from nowhere and want fed. Now to the pertinent question:

Do ducks have ears?

WC

Heh. Yo'u've stumped the expert there... But, I'll assume they have very small ears on the upper sides of their heads.
Probably protected by all the fluff.

I could probably Google this, but I figured the conversation about it on TRF would be more interesting. Thanks, Bill.

WC

Ducks have ears and they are smart little critters. I watched a wild one nearly drown a lab one day. the dumb dog kept swimming out after it and the duck would swim out just ahead of it and when the dog would give up and turn around the duck would chase after it and it would turn around to get it. The went at it for nearly 45 minutes and the owner had to row out and pull the dog out and bring it in. He said the dog was ready to sink.

Ducks chirp and quack at each other, both as an alarm and as a more subtle form of communication. They wouldn't do so if they had no way of detecting sounds.

The geese try to get in on the ducks' meals. The mallard duck runs them off. He squawks bloody murder and the geese scram. I figured ducks could hear, so I wondered if they had ears. I posted this question mostly to make fun of my normally know-it-all frau. "Our" ducks are not really afraid of people. They climb up on the golf cart, and Bentley runs them off his buggy. They don't like large crowds of people. They mooch off us and also off people across the lake. They are certainly fat ducks. I'm surprised that somebody did not have corn-fed duck for Christmas dinner. I have no idea where they spent the winter. They do not seem to get along with the geese.

WC

In reference to the thread title, I like to use the phrase, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, but the are an awful lot of inquisitive idiots."

Motorola man wrote:In reference to the thread title, I like to use the phrase, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, but the are an awful lot of inquisitive idiots."  

That's funny, It quacked Me up

HiJacking the topic, when I was a Kid (yes believe it or not!) I would whistle and chickens would start shaking their heads.
So Chickens Hear also. That's a scientific fact. YEP

"There's no such thing as a stupid question, but the are an awful lot of stupid answers, well some anyway, LOL ."

Don't those yahoos on duck dynasty manufacture duck calls?

75X11 wrote:Don't those yahoos on duck dynasty manufacture duck calls?

That's right!

Ducks have two tiny holes close to their eyes. This is how they hear!

Also, they are cute and all, but don't go swimming with them.

The question was NOT "do ducks hear", rather "do ducks have ears." Mr Mez has the answer. Thank you.

I fell on my sword right from the get-go. Is the term "idiot" perhaps a tad too strong?

WC

Nah. About right. Personally, I'm a fool..............

For me, the silliness comes in when one gives a considered involved answer to an involved question and after getting the answer the person goes "oh" and ignores the info. Oft times the result makes for just desserts.

Since I never have, why should I NOT go swimming with a duck?

WC

You can develop a bad skin rash from it called "duck itch".

Got it. They are fun little critters to watch. They are never quiet.

WC

Ernie Sings Rubber Ducky Your the One, So they must have ears to Hear