Wednesday is Dead Duck Day

The 24th annual Dead Duck Day celebration happens on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Dead Duck Day honors the mallard duck that became known to science as the first (documented) ‘victim’ of homosexual necrophilia in that species, and earned its discoverer, Kees Moeliker, the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize.

Kees Moeliker, who is now director of the museum where the incident occurred, invites everyone to join in the celebration:

Dead Duck Day also commemorates the billions of other birds that die(d) from colliding with glass buildings, and challenges people to find solutions to this global problem.

Please join the free, short open-air ceremony next to the new wing of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam (the Netherlands), right below the new Dead Duck Memorial Plaque — the very spot where that duck (now museum specimen NMR 9989-00232) met his dramatic end….

After the ceremony, join us for the traditional six-course (dead) duck dinner at the famous Tai Wu Restaurant. This dinner, also, is open to the public (at your own expense). Reserve your seat by e-mailing to: info [at] hetnatuurhistorisch.nl

[Read full details on Kees’s blog.]

UPDATE: Here’s video from this year’s Dead Duck Day:

Here is the TED Talk Kees did about the duck:

Dead Duck Day has many admirers. Here is one of them: