This advice about cats, from an artificial duck farmer — a farmer who raised ducks under artificial conditions — was published in 1906, in the book Natural and Artificial Duck Culture by James Rankin: Do Not Have Neighbors Too Near. Another source of discomfort was our neighbors’ cats. Now, we are eminently social in our […]
The city of Rotterdam plans to prohibit people from feeding bread to ducks. The news organization NRC reports, on April 7, 2022, about the pushback on that, especially from the city’s most eminent duck biologist. Here is a machine translation (into English) of that report: Doubts in Rotterdam about the usefulness of the ban on […]
The special Ducks issue (volume 27, number 4) of the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research, has flown its way to subscribers. This special issue, like many other special issues of the magazine, is also available for purchase. All the issues are in the form of downloadable PDFs. Are you a Duck? Unless you yourself are […]
The 25th Dead Duck Day, on June 5th, will be postponed till 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, public open air gatherings are not allowed. So be on the lookout for the special (postponed) 25th anniversary edition in 2021. This year, Dead Duck Day will have only two participants – me and the stuffed duck, […]
Heavy-leaded ducks were seized by the US Customs and Border Protection agency, an action the agency announced in a May 12, 2020 press release: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Savannah Seaport seized 5,000 stuffed toy ducks after it was determined that they contained excessive amounts of lead. The press release includes […]
The book Ducks, and How to Make Them Pay, by William Cook, published by E. Clarke and Sons, in 1890 and later in other editions, is about how to make ducks pay. Cook instructs his fellow humans on how to make money, one way or another, by utilizing ducks one way or another. A Latter-day, […]
True Facts produced this short video called “True Facts About The Duck.” Some of those facts were discovered by Patricia Brennan and Kees Moeliker, both of whom contributed to production of this video. Some years ago Patricia Brennan summarized her discoveries in a 24/7 Lecture at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Some years before that […]
The 22nd edition of Dead Duck Day, honoring the mallard duck that became known to science as the first (documented) ‘victim’ of homosexual necrophilia in that species, on June 5th, 2017 attracted 85 spectators, a record number since 1996. Right outside the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, the ceremony included (1) the first posthumous public […]
It took some time to write-up the things that happened at the 20th edition of Dead Duck Day — commemorating the first scientifically documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Here it is, laced with photographs: On June 5th, 2015, the 20th Dead Duck Day attracted a crowd of about 50 people. They gathered at […]
June 5th 2014 was the 19th Dead Duck Day (here is a full, ilustrated report). Since 2010 a leading scientist or science writer is invited to send in the Special Dead Duck Day Message. So far, over the years, Daniel Klem jr, Patricia Brennan, Tim Birkhead and Carin Bondar have contributed. This year’s special DDD message […]