Today is publication day for the German edition of Kees Moeliker’s Tell-All-About-The-Duck book. As you probably know, Kees was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology, for his research study “The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos.” This nifty video shows Kees gamely talking about it in German, rather than his native Dutch.
The Original Dutch title is De Eendenman. The German edition, is called Der Entenmann: Von Spatzenklöten, aussterbenden Filzläusen und nekrophilen Enten. Mysteriöse Todesfälle aus dem Tierreich. If you prefer numbers, you’ll note that the ISBN is 978-3841906106.
The book’s name translates, into English, as “The Duck Guy.” If you prefer English, you will have to wait until some sensible, greedy book publisher wises up and asks Kees to do an English language edition. In the meantime, you can see and hear Kees telling the basic story of the duck, in this TED Talk (which you can also find by Googling the four words “TED Talk dead duck”):
Kees Moeliker, an ornithologist, is director of the natural history museum in Rotterdam. You are always welcome to visit him and the preserved remains of one of the ducks, at the museum. The most fun time to visit, of course, in any year on June 5, when the museum and the city of Rotterdam celebrate Dead Duck Day, on the anniversary of the incident, involving two ducks and a glass wall, that led to all this.
UPDATE: Kees interviewed on the DAS! TV program, September 7, 2018
UPDATE: “Die tote Ente ist immer dabei“, Spiegel, September 7, 2018