I couldn't make this up. Somebody hand reared an Australian musk duck, and apparently he can now call people bloody fools.
A duck.
So I did some poling around. The Musk Duck, Biziura lobata is only "distantly" related...possibly...to other stiff-tailed ducks. The males have a weird leather lobe under their bill. They're diving ducks.
And they differ from other ducks in a few ways too. They're not monogamous, but in fact are lek breeders (the males display, the females pick the best one, mate, then go off to raise the eggs alone). The males produce a strong musk when in rut. They don't even like other ducks. And they fly so little that for a while people thought they were flightless.
I'm starting to question whether these things are, in fact, ducks? They walk like them...but they don't quack like them. Well, unless they're mimicking them.
I mean, they sure don't act like ducks and while I have known many waterfowl (usually geese) who would call humans bloody fools if they could...this is the first evidence that any member of the Anserinae family can.
Have we done a DNA test on these fools?
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