Male Common Mergansers - Hangin' out with the guys.

A pair of male common mergansers on Dutch Lake.
Common mergansers breed in the northern parts of Canada and on or near the coastline all the way up to the Alaska Panhandle.  Mergansers are monogamous for the year, although they don't necessarily have the same mate in successive years.  So, why would there be a pair of males swimming and flying together on a lake south of their breeding range?

The answer is simple and is a way of looking into our own behaviours.  These boys have not bonded with a female yet and are on the way to do so.  However, as they progress towards that ultimate goal they enjoy the company of each other.  It makes me think of young men who huddle together before marriage or serious courting.  Both groups benefit from the social interaction, experience reduced stress by being in a group, and then there is a collective looking out for each other mindset. 

It turns out that many higher organisms have an innate tendency to be in a group.  The benefits are clear; protection, sharing resources, and socialization.  There are more eyes and ears around to watch for predators.  More individuals means that a desired resource is more likely to be found because a larger area can be searched in any given amount of time.  Then there is the social benefit of being with others that each of us has no doubt experienced.  If you don't agree with that, consider how isolation has affected you during the Covid-19 crisis.

One of the wonderful things about wildlife is what many of these organisms can teach us about ourselves.  I am not talking about anthropomorphising other creatures the way we do with cartoons like Over the Hedge or even Homeward Bound - The Incredible Journey.  Rather I am talking about looking at the internal motivations behind the behaviours.  Many of the things organisms do have developed out of evolutionary pressures; being social is one of those things.

Hangin' out with the guys (or girls, for that matter), is an internal desire which has been spawned in us throughout our history.  It is natural and good.  Isn't that why baseball was invented?

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen

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