Posted on 03/08/2005 8:19:39 AM PST by DBeers
Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers
The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker.
It may have ruffled a few feathers, but it earned him the coveted Ig Nobel prize for biology awarded for improbable research, and next week he will be recounting his findings to UK audiences on the Ig Nobel tour.
Ducks behave pretty badly, it seems. It is not so much that up to one in 10 of mallard couples are homosexual - no one would raise an eyebrow in the liberal Netherlands - but they regularly indulge in "attempted rape flights" when they pursue other ducks with a view to forcible mating. "Rape is a normal reproductive strategy in mallards," explains Mr Moeliker.
As he recounts in his seminal paper, The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard anas platyrhynchos, he was in his office in the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, when he was alerted by a bang to the fact a bird had crashed into the glass facade of the building. "I went downstairs immediately to see if the window was damaged, and saw a drake mallard (anas platyrhynchos) lying motionless on its belly in the sand, two metres outside the facade. The unfortunate duck apparently had hit the building in full flight at a height of about three metres from the ground. Next to the obviously dead duck, another male mallard (in full adult plumage without any visible traces of moult) was present. He forcibly picked into the back, the base of the bill and mostly into the back of the head of the dead mallard for about two minutes, then mounted the corpse and started to copulate, with great force, almost continuously picking the side of the head.
"Rather startled, I watched this scene from close quarters behind the window until 19.10 hours during which time (75 minutes) I made some photographs and the mallard almost continuously copulated his dead congener. He dismounted only twice, stayed near the dead duck and picked the neck and the side of the head before mounting again. The first break (at 18.29 hours) lasted three minutes and the second break (at 18.45 hours) lasted less than a minute. At 19.12 hours, I disturbed this cruel scene. The necrophilic mallard only reluctantly left his 'mate': when I had approached him to about five metres, he did not fly away but simply walked off a few metres, weakly uttering a series of two-note 'raeb-raeb' calls (the 'conversation-call' of Lorentz 1953). I secured the dead duck and left the museum at 19.25 hours. The mallard was still present at the site, calling 'raeb-raeb' and apparently looking for his victim (who, by then, was in the freezer)."
Mr Moeliker suggests the pair were engaged in a rape flight attempt. "When one died the other one just went for it and didn't get any negative feedback - well, didn't get any feedback," he said.
His findings have provoked a lot of interest - especially in Britain for some reason - but no other recorded cases of duck necrophilia. However, Mr Moeliker was informed of an American case involving a squirrel and a dead partner, although in this case it is not known whether the necrophilia observed was homosexual or not as the victim had been run over by a truck shortly before the incident.
A$$FLAC
ping. LOL
It's perfectly normal...you homo-necrophobe!
Would it be a Hate Crime to call this kind of behavior "Daffy"?
It's not just humans getting warped by the homosexual propaganda machine.
SO9
Why does the story sound like the cliche of "F***ed like a Duck"?
It was the first and only South Park episode I ever watched. But it just sticks in you head.
Too much!! What's that poem, "a buck for a duck..." ??
These ducks are mallardjusted.
"When one died the other one just went for it and didn't get any negative feedback - well, didn't get any feedback," he said.
ROTFLMFAO
Good point.
I think the researcher is a quack.
Where are the lesbian ducks?
Gonna have to bookmark this one to reference every time the pro-homo cheerleaders try to fall back on the "But the animals do it" argument.
Uh, so much for me wanting some ducks as pets. I could have put up with smelly. This is too much!
At Dixie Chicks concerts?
Cold Duck?
Oh, that was so bad.
Mallards are one of the main reasons there are so few black ducks left in the US...
I spent one spring watching the ducks at a local small park, and learned a few things about mallard behavior. If you have ever watched mallards in the mating season, you will realise:
1) mallard drakes tend to hand out in pairs.
2) it's not unusual for a mallard drake to wait for his partner to finish with a hen then take his turn. Or even assist his partner in cornering the female
3)females necks lose a lot of feathers over the course of the mating season (cause this is where the drakes tend to hold the hens as they duck them underwater (they prefer to mate in the water).
Sometimes, it seems a hen may prefer one of the pair over the other.
Mallard males aren't too particular about the species, either...if it's in season and it looks enough like a duck, they will try to go for it! There are a lot of mallard/domestic duck crosses most places where ducks hang out for handouts....
I though NO animals committed rape. (Or murder, torture, etc.)
That's why they're so superior to us humans.
This has got to be one of the strangest things I've read in awhile.....
WTF??? First the penguins, now THIS! I can't cope.
Dithpicable!
Where are the lesbian ducks?At Dixie Chicks concerts?
. . . getting down.
Chimps fight wars among various bands, as do ants, ducks and weazles rape, so what's new?
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............... > Deinsea > Deinsea.. > Deinsea overview.. > Deinsea 1-94.. > Deinsea 2-95.. > Deinsea 3-97.. > Deinsea 4-98 >abstract Deinsea 8-2001 C.W. Moeliker The complete article in PDF-format
a Drake mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) in full breeding plumage (left) next to the dead drake mallard (NMR 9997-00232) just after collision with the new wing of the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam; b the same couple during copulation, two minutes after photo a was taken. [photo: C.W. Moeliker]
Related publications (1) [in dutch] Related publications (2) [in dutch] Dagboek Ig Nobel:uit Straatgras jaargang 15, nummer 3/4, november 2003 [in dutch] Hollands Dagboek zaterdag 20 maart 2004/ zondag 21 maart 2004: NRC Handelsblad [in dutch]
download Acrobat Reader ( PDF-format). ______________________________________________________________________________________
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duck . . duck . . Goose!
More Ig Nobel prize winners here:
http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2001
If this is the actually picture, then I have a problem with it.
The article stated that the 'dead duck' was also a male.
Yet, if you look at the markings of the 'live duck' and the 'dead duck' it seems to me that the 'dead duck' is, in fact, not a male, but a female.
oh great - that makes ALL the difference!
In this case, both the researcher and the subjects ran into a lot of dead ends.
don't mean to overlook the author's perspective. Guess it's just the necro is icky enough for me.
DEAD ENDS!! hahahahaha ROFLMAO
LOL. Oh you bad.
Makes all the difference.
Well, if you're a duck it does.
I'm leaving this thread now...
I hear ya!
:0)
I just clicked on this thread to find out what kind of person would post such a thing. (And now I'm all caught-up in it!)
Ooowww!
I ain't sayin' nuttin'........
Ooowww!""
More like EEEWWWWWWWWWW!
:0)
I'll take that as a compliment...:-)
Cue the duck Ping.
Check out post #2
Stop it!
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.C.W. Moeliker