How Ducks Avoid Frostbite in Cold Waters

Have you ever seen a Wild Pintail or Mallard Duck swimming and riding a river current and wondered just how do they swim in freezing cold and not get frostbite in their bare feet like us humans do? Let’s find out!

Too much of the cold blood would bring their body temperature down which would then lead to hypothermia but ducks have another way of solving this!

Ducks feet are not insulated through layers of fat nor feathers so with this being said, they instead rely on another source of warmth called “countercurrent”.

As warm arterial blood rushes out of the duck’s heart and begins traveling its way to the duck’s feet, it is met closely by the rushing cold blood coming out of the duck’s feet. In birds the veins and arteries run close together therefore as they pass each other, the cold blood from the duck’s feet takes most of the heat from the artery causing the artery blood to be extremely cool before entering the duck’s leg, preventing any heat loose from the Duck’s body.