Spotlight on human-duck interactions over time

These days, if you have anything that looks remotely like food when visiting the duck pond at the Dunedin Botanic Garden, it can resemble a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s horror The Birds.

But University of Otago PhD candidate Paul Tully said feeding the ducks and pigeons at the pond never used to create a frenzy of squawking and flapping.

He is researching the history of the various interactions between visitors to the pond and the birds that live in and around the area.

"I started out by looking at humans feeding the ducks, and also how the ducks would either accept or refuse the food, how the pigeons got involved, and what that meant for all the other animals in the area that you can’t actually see."

Now he is expanding his research to see how those interactions have changed over the past century.

"I came across a photograph in the Hocken Library archive collections, from 1904.

"The photo was of a child and a parent, just feeding a duck over a fence around the pond, and it was just so different to what you see today.

"That got me interested in exploring how it had changed from that picture in 1904, to what I’ve been seeing in the present day.

"From what I’ve seen so far, earlier on in the 1900s it looks more calm and reserved, whereas now there’s a lot more people, a lot more ducks — it’s a lot more active."

Over the past century,  birdlife appeared to have learned from generation to generation that the pond was a good source of food, he said.

"There’s the element that the ducks have adapted and have sensed the ability to get the food, and humans feeding them has provided them with an easier source of nutrition.

"The birds these days can be quite aggressive — they will land on you to get the food.

"Certainly, the pigeons as well, very much know how to manipulate the situation to get the food."

He said his main motivation for the research was to show the impact of duck feeding at the pond in a new light.

"It goes far beyond just a human feeding a duck. There’s a lot more going on from that one activity."

In a bid to further his research, he is asking people for their home movies — including videos and Super 8 film — featuring activities around the duck pond from the 1960s through to the 1990s.

He hoped the public would assist by emailing: paul.tully@postgrad.otago.ac.nz