Fish Eggs 640L

Fish Eggs 640L

Fish eggs can still be hatched after 

being eaten and pooped by ducks

By Carolyn Wilke, Science News for

 StudentsPublished:09/07/2020Word Count:464Recommended for:Upper Elementary School - Middle SchoolText Level:3

1

• Fish eggs or roe make a great lunch for a duck. But it's a scary trip for the fish eggs. They could be smashed in a part of the duck called the gizzard. They could also be attacked by stomach acid. Most eggs can't survive. 

Multiple Choice

Where is the gizzard?

• hands

• mouth

• stomach

Multiple Choice

What is roe?

• beak

• fish eggs

• feathers

• duck feet

2

• Recently, scientists found that a few eggs can make it out alive in a duck's poop. Duck poop could bring fish to new places. It could also move fish that hurt the environment.

Multiple Choice

what did scientists recently find out about fish eggs?

• Fish eggs can freeze

• fish eggs stay eggs for 1 year

• fish eggs can survive duck's poop.

Multiple Choice

Duck poop can...

• melt

• Bring fish to new places

• grow bigger

3

• Orsolya Vincze is a biologist. She studies living things. She says many people didn't think fish eggs could survive being eaten. That's because many fish eggs are very soft. 

Multiple Choice

What is Orsolya Vincze job?

• She sells fish

• She studies living things

• she writes blogs

Multiple Choice

What do many people believe about fish eggs?

• fish eggs can't survive being eaten

• fish eggs die once out of water

• fish eggs live up to 100 years

4 Egg Experiment

• Vincze's team ran an experiment. They fed 8,000 fish eggs to eight ducks. These eggs came from fish called carp. Some carp can be harmful if you move them somewhere new. They can be an invasive species. This is when living things come from outside environments and take over the new place. 

Multiple Choice

What is an invasive species?

• when living things come from outside environments and take over the new place

• when living things move to multiple homes often

• when living things act dead to survive

Multiple Choice

What fish did the eggs in the experiment come from?

• Carp

• Tilapia

• Salmon

• Trout

Multiple Choice

When can carp fish be harmful?

• when they are hungry

• when they are moved somewhere new

• when they are young

5 Egg Experiment

• The ducks only pooped out 18 unbroken eggs. Some of these eggs had baby fish moving inside. A few of these eggs even hatched.  The scientists were surprised. They wrote a paper about this in June 2020. Vincze says one carp can lay hundreds of thousands of eggs. Many fish and birds eat these eggs. All of their poop together could have a big affect. 

Multiple Choice

Which animal does not eat fish eggs?

• fish

• birds

• dogs

Multiple Choice

After the ducks pooped, what was inside the eggs?

• 18 unbroken eggs, some of these eggs had baby fish moving inside

• broken eggs came out

• grown birds were hatched

Multiple Choice

One carp can lay up to how many eggs?

• 10-15

• 20-40

• 50-80

• 100 or more

6 Ducks Bring Eggs To New Lakes

• This study could solve how fish move into new lakes and ponds. Scientists did not understand this for many years. They wondered how fish were moving over land.Most eggs in the new study were pooped out in one hour. The longest took four hours. Some ducks can fly 60 kilometers (37 miles) in one hour. The ducks could move fish a long way, even in a short trip. 

Multiple Choice

How do ducks help fish get to new land?

• Ducks walk with them to new land.

• Ducks were moving fish by pooping them out in new lands they flew to.

• Ducks would mark the land for them too.

Multiple Choice

what is the longest time it took for a duck to poop out the eggs?

• 2 hours

• 3 hours

• 4 hours

• 5 hours

Multiple Choice

How fast can ducks fly?

• 11 mph

• 23 mph

• 37 mph

• 54 mph

7

• Scientists from Brazil found this, too. They showed another kind of fish egg could survive in swan poop. Giliandro Silva was on this team. He says eggs moving by bird poop might happen a lot more than we thought.

Multiple Choice

In what other country did scientist find eggs could move by bird poop?

• Samoa

• Japan

• Brazil

• Guam

Multiple Choice

How often do scientists think duck poop move fish eggs to new places?

• Rarely

• Not often

• All of the time

8 Spreading Harmful Fish

• Other scientists say there is more to learn. They need to learn if eggs can grow into adult fish after birds eat them. They also have to test different types of birds and eggs. This will help show how harmful bird poop can be.

Multiple Choice

What do scientists still need to learn?

• if eggs can travel through poop

• if eggs can grow into adult fish after birds eat them

• if eggs live 100 years before hatching

Multiple Choice

What will testing different birds and eggs help show in the article?

• how harmful bird poop can be

• how healthy their diet is

• when they will die

9

• But Silva said that it is humans who move most invasive species, like carp. In the 1970s, people brought some kinds of carp to parts of the United States. These fish were supposed to eat plants in fish farms. The carp got out and spread through the Mississippi River and Great Lakes. We can't blame ducks for this.

Multiple Choice

What were the fish supposed to do when they were brought to the US?

• make new habitats

• populate

• swim to the north

• eat plants in fish farms

Multiple Choice

What is a synonym for the word invasive?

• open

• independent

• intrusive

Multiple Choice

Who did Silva say moves invasive species?

• ducks

• humans

• birds

Open Ended

What is one interesting fact you learned in this article?