Leiden researcher discovers duck that says ‘bloody fool’ | Inland

Carel ten Cate is professor of animal behavior at Leiden University and came across the Australian Muscovy duck more or less by accident. He was reviewing studies of vocal learning in birds and came across an obscure reference that mentioned a muscovy duck raised by humans. The duck is said to have learned to say “you bloody foo(l)” (“you bloody fool”). Also, the duck would be able to imitate other sounds, such as that of a slamming door.

When Ten Cate read that, it sounded so improbable to him “that I doubted whether it was serious,” he says. “But I was intrigued, because if it were true, that would be scientifically very exciting.” When vocal learning is discovered in a new group, it sheds new light on the circumstances and conditions under which the ability can evolve evolutionarily.

Sound clips

The professor tracked down sound fragments of the ‘talking’ Muscovy duck. They turned out to be images from 1987 taken by an Australian birdwatcher. After analysis, Ten Cate concluded that the level at which the Muscovy duck can mimic sounds is comparable to that of other imitating bird species. “Ducks split off from other bird species early on and are therefore considered ‘primitive’,” says Ten Cate. “Vocal learning is an advanced skill. This makes the finding surprising, also because duck brains differ quite a bit in structure from, for example, songbirds and parrots. That also raises all kinds of new questions.”

Ten Cate recently published his (re)discovery and presented the birdwatcher who made the recording as the second author.

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