Las Vegas community split on duck issue in northwest valley neighborhood

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Wild or not, it appears several ducks at Desert Shores are dying, leaving unhatched eggs behind and making some residents worried enough is not being done.

For years the private Northwest Las Vegas valley community of Desert Shores has been home to a variety of waterfowl— swans were removed from the area in 2017 after a different issue.

A Nextdoor post from Desert Shores resident Peggy Wang shared with 8 News Now shows images of a dead duck and feathers strewn about an embankment alongside unattended, unhatched eggs.

“Two days in a row, three times this week now, coyotes have snatched nesting moms,” Wang writes in her post. “I am worried about the Canada geese as well as they arrive only to nest, I worry they will suffer the same fate.”

Mabel Maultsby, a Desert Shores resident, touted the more than three decades old community as clean, kept-up, and filled with neighbors who care about their homes, but agreed the ducks are suffering.

“It’s sad, I just really feel bad for the ducks, they really have no place to go,” she said.

Ducks have been killed and disrupted in years past, but Maultsby echoed Wang’s online theory that coyotes might be the culprit.

“They follow the line of the houses,” she said. “They do come up here through possibly the drainage system and come up the hills to hunt for food.”

Fowl Traffic

Some business and property owners in the Desert Shores community who spoke with 8 News Now did not agree the local ducks are facing any great risk.

One owner conceded there are not as many ducks in the community as in years past, but it hasn’t caused them to worry about the duck population disappearing nor any possible uptick in coyotes.

Property owners provided evidence pointing to the backed-up neighborhood traffic spurred by ducks waddling from the street to one of the neighborhood’s three lakes.

The Desert Shores Homeowners Association does recognize the ducks as wild and has posted guidelines barring residents and visitors from feeding or handling the animals in the community.

Domestic or Wild?

The Nevada Department of Wildlife responded to one Desert Shores resident’s email about whether the ducks in the area are domestic or wild, asking if they aren’t wildlife shouldn’t the ducks be rehomed.

“Dumped domestic birds are considered feral and are NOT wildlife,” the NDOW employee said over email. “We consider dumped domestic ducks as a health threat to our wild birds and would prefer to see them removed.”

The NDOW employee noted that during a conversation with a Desert Shores representative, they made a recommendation to cut down on possible diseases by removing all domestic and Muscovy ducks, according to the email.

“The ducks are born here,” Maultsby said in response to the issue. “They live here and very ever seldom stray from where they were born.”

Residents expressed concern that nothing will change for the fowl at Desert Shores but said they will care for the animals as much as they can for the community.

“I mean, what’s a lake if you don’t have ducks and fish,” Maultsby said.

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