by Katy Knapp
Daily Lobo
Desks, chairs, an immeasurable amount of beer bottles and a concession trailer have all been removed from the Duck Pond.
"Everything that comes on campus has an opportunity to end up in the Duck Pond," said Gary Smith, who is the associate director of UNM's Environmental Services.
Smith said one person is assigned to clean the pond daily.
"We get a lot of debris," he said.
Nicole Howlingcrane, an Albuquerque resident, said she brings her daughter AlizÇ to the Duck Pond almost every day.
"She likes the ducks," she said, while watching AlizÇ play by the water. "I think it's kind of rude people throw things in there. Those ducks don't know (people) are contaminating their water."
About 10 ducks are permanent residents at the Duck Pond, Smith said.
"But there are a lot of wild mallards that come and go," he said. "So that kind of skews the total population."
Every spring break, the Duck Pond gets an annual cleaning. Besides the 40,000 gallons of sludge removed from the bottom, the department also thins out the waterfowl population. He said about 25 to 30 ducks are removed every year.
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"Because we get so many ducks that are abandoned by people, it really ruins the water quality," Smith said.
The Environmental Services Department gives the ducks to anyone who wants them, he said.
Smith said the fountains at the Duck Pond are multifunctional.
"They're there to aerate and keep the water as oxygenated as possible," Smith said.
He said if the pond didn't receive oxygen, the consequences could be bad.
"If were to lose the aeration system, then it could become anaerobic and be a stinking cesspool," he said.
The ducks are fed duck chow and corn by Environmental Services, but Smith said their main source of food comes from people feeding them.
"They are obviously not hurting for food," he said. "The problem comes when people throw whole loaves of bread in the water. That's a tremendous amount of organic matter."
He said the ducks excrete a large amount of phosphates and nitrates into the water, which causes a buildup of algae bloom on the bottom of the pond.
"People mean well," Smith said, "But it's not good for the ducks, and it causes maintenance problems."
A couple of dead ducks have been sighted at the Duck Pond in the past few weeks.
Springtime means duck mating season, which can be pretty rough on female ducks, Smith said, but it didn't cause any of them to die.
Bob Dickerman, an associate professor in the Biology Department, said he has never heard of a mallard killing his mate.
"Although they have been known to have gang rapes," he said. "With that one species, it happens quite frequently. They also mate with dead females."
Student Justin Foss came to the Duck Pond for the first time this semester on Thursday. He said he likes watching the atmosphere and the ducks.
"But they can be pretty mean to each other," he said.
Smith said the brutal mating rituals are an issue for the department, but the cause of the deaths is probably unrelated.
"People bring their dogs on the weekends, and they attack ducks," he said. "Many of the ducks are domesticated ones people brought out here and dropped off. Their wing muscles haven't been nurtured, so they can't fly away."
The Duck Pond is also home to about 5,000 goldfish and 10 turtles, Smith said.
None of the ducks have names, Smith said, but he made an exception for the aggressive geese that used to stalk the Duck Pond.
"I had names for them, but not ones I can say," he said.
