Their Last Supper

From July 15, 1993 (update #17)

BRIDGEMAN, Mich. - Nineteen of 21 Lesser Scaup diving ducks killed while feeding at the water intake structures of the Cook Nuclear Power Plant in late 1991 had consumed zebra mussels, according to an article published in the Journal of Field Ornithology. Authors Christine Mitchell and John Carlson reported that an average of 260 mussels and a maximum of 987 mussels were found in the gastrointestinal tracts of the ducks. Except for three snails found in one bird, no other food items were found. About 400 diving ducks - mostly Lesser Scaup - were entrained into the water intake of the plant between December 5 and 17, 1991 (see ZMU #12). Invertebrate food items (e.g., amphipods, snails, clams and insects) usually predominate in the diet of migrant Lesser Scaup. This was the first published account of ducks eating zebra mussels in North America.

ID: 19930715-8.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.