Looking
online, I found this
wildlife sanctuary website stating that the cyanide is toxic to ducks.
This article states that "cyanide bombs" killed ducks. The cyanide bombs are filled with sodium cyanide.
This article published by the University of Nevada shows ducks being given with low-dose potassium cyanide. This dose was "well below those generally accepted by the wildlife regulatory agencies as “safe” for migratory birds (50 mg/L)" It goes on to note a whole lot of bad--but not lethal--things happening to the ducks, and concluded
These results show that while these cyanide dosages were not acutely lethal to the birds, they did cause considerable biological damage which
would significantly impact the viability of these birds
Note, the potassium cyanide was given in
water solution via gavage--they forced the liquid down the ducks throats. I'm thinking they had to do this because ducks will naturally stop drinking something poisonous.
I have a feeling that ducks--as long as they have
enough other food--will not eat too much of a food that could kill them. But, if you don't
feed them enough, they might resort to eating it (when I first got ducks, I didn't realize that I was underfeeding them, and mine were eating potato plants. In the past 6+ years that I've been feeding them enough, I have never seen them eat a potato plant.).
It'd be interesting to find out the concentration--and form--of cyanide in chokecherries...and how much actually gets absorbed by the ducks body when they digest it. According to
Ohio State University, the form of cyanide is hydrocyanic acid (that's what occurs in the stomach), but I can't find what concentration....and my brain's a bit too tired to try to combine that info with the study about the ducks force-fed potassium cyanide water.