The mother duck will only realise that one of her ducklings are missing and will likely go looking for it. Once she finds the duckling, she will realise that it is no longer alive and focus on the ducklings she still has. Dont feel too bad because things like tgis happen all the time in the wild so the mother will not think much of it, she will just try to protect the rest of the ducklings better.

No they don't have that ablity to grieve but the mom duck will call or look for the lost but now dead chick once she relizes the chick is not responding to her she will tend to the rest and move on with ther life and the babies she needs to teach the rest the survival tactas to live in the wilds .

You should not feel bad the cat was doing what comes natural to cats hunt and retreave the catch to its owner YOU so let the cat be a cat..

My cat has brought me several birds alive a rat alive and many snakes alive so he can show us what a hunter he is

No

Lower animals like cats, dogs, ducks and the like do not grieve for their young at all. Only high animals like primates , whales and dolphins do.

Going out with eh cat won't stop it from slaughtering more wild life. Since ducks are federally protected wild waterfowl you can be arrested and fined for letting the cat kill the duckling

Keep the cat in doors

Don't feel bad it's life! Animals die and give birth it's the cycle of life and no they cannot. They don't have that ability to they only go by instinct, to eat, sleep, breed, protect there young and move on and migrate. To your cat leave him be. He's telling you he likes you by giving you a present either it's a live or dead.

Ducks have lots of babies so when things like this do happen, she still has others to care for. Why do you think she had nine babies? Only about 3 survive until adulthood.

my cat came in with a baby duck in its mouth. The baby chick was already dead by the time I tried to save it. It came from a pond behind my house. My cat was able to snatched one of the babies. The mother is always in the pond or along the banks of the pond with her batch of chicks. I took the dead chick back outside, and laid it next to the pond so at least she would know what happened to it, and won't be looking for it in vain. I am very sad about it. Sad because my cat robbed the chick of a long life, and because I wonder if the mother is grieving. Do you think the mother is grieving? She still has about 8 chicks left, but I don't know if ducks grieve like people do. My cat is never going outside without me again.