Humans have plenty of abilities as babies to protect themselves. The grasping reflex to prevent falls, the innate fear of snakes in almost all infants which causes them to cry to alert the others of the danger, etc.
We used to have a fishing pier in our backyard in a home I had in the 80s. I would always go fishing and watch the baby ducks following mom.
When she stopped for a while to eat minnows in the tall grass at the shore, the babies would get distracted and one or two wouldn’t notice mom swimming away.
They could really kick up a wake when pumping those little webbed feet trying to catch up to mom. Unfortunately, they have many predators and very sneaky ones they never see until too late.
I forgot to mention this is in Florida, so every once in a while, a small gator would pop up and gobble down the baby duck that was too distracted.
Believe it or not, even those small gators were afraid of momma duck because she can be relentless attacking. Large gators aren’t interested in a baby duck, so mom’s not worried about them.
The most surprising predator was the largemouth bass I was fishing for, which will hit those babies hard and you can hear a large sucking sound as they huff down that baby duck.
In fact, it is illegal to use baby ducks as bait for fishing. There are actually jerks who will tie a hook to the side of a baby duck with thread and then let it go for a swim.
A single baby duck is a magnet for largemouth bass and almost a guaranteed catch, but it’s too cruel to use them this way, without the protection of momma duck.
Those same idiots will also tie hooks to mice and turn them loose in the grassy shores of ponds and lake where bass will hit them like a bomb too. The bass hit the ducks and mice with such ferocity, that the hook will always embed.
