The Wolter Report: Do Northerns and Muskies Really Eat Ducklings?
The Wolter Report (Max Wolter, DNR fisheries biologist, Hayward): Anglers who spend considerable time on the water (or watching Internet videos) may have seen a northern pike or musky attack a duckling at some point. This occurrence is well known and there are even duckling fly patterns. Researchers in Sweden actually studied if northern pike had a significant impact on duck breeding success.
They used a series of lakes that had breeding ducks but no fish. The researchers introduced pike to half of the lakes, leaving the other lakes alone, and over the next few years, surveyed the duck populations.
They found that ducks still choose to breed on the lakes now holding northern pike, however, there were noticeably fewer ducklings surviving in the pike lakes compared to the lakes without pike. It’s not hard to imagine what happened there.
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