Monday, September 06, 2021

“You Bloody Fool” Shouts First Confirmed Talking Duck


AUSTRALIAN MUSK DUCKS WERE MAINLY KNOWN FOR THEIR DISTINCTIVE SMELL IN MATING SEASON AND THE LOBE HANGING FROM THE MALES' BILLS. NOW, HOWEVER, ONE LITTLE RIPPER HAS TRANSFORMED IDEAS ABOUT VOCAL LEARNING IN BIRDS.

 IMAGE CREDIT: KEN GRIFFITHS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


By Stephen Luntz 06 SEP 2021, 11:50


“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck,” the old saying goes – but something sounding like an Australian wildlife keeper might be a duck too.

A duck named Ripper has done something never before recorded among any waterfowl; imitate sounds. Although Ripper is sadly no longer with us, his quintessentially Australian voice lives on in audio files investigated in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. They provide the first scientifically authenticated case of a duck capable of vocal learning, and could open up opportunities to investigate why only certain birds can learn in this way. 

Ripper was an Australian musk duck (Biziura lobate), a species where males perform displays to attract females and warn off rivals. Along with non-vocal “paddle-kick” and “plonk-kicks” these displays include so-called “whistle-kicks” where the duck’s feet hit the water accompanied by soft low-frequency sounds and louder whistles.

Instead of singing the song of his people, however, Ripper took to sounds including one seemingly inspired by the hinge on his cage closing, while another sounds like “You bloody foo..”. It is thought his keeper may have called him a “bloody fool” often enough it sank in.

IFLScience · Duck Saying "You Bloody Fool"



Many birds can learn to imitate sounds, sometimes including human speech. However, every species in which this has been reliably reported belongs to one of three clades: songbirds (including the extraordinary lyrebird), hummingbirds, and parrots. Other birds have innate calls unaffected by sounds they are exposed to. Occasional reports of vocal imitation in other species have never previously been independently verified.

First author of the study, Professor Carel ten Cate of Leiden University, told IFLScience that Ripper’s discovery could be highly valuable to understanding the origins of vocal learning.

“Some songbirds imitate more and better than others,” Professor ten Cate said. “We can look into why, but to understand how vocal learning started we need to know the ancestral trait. That evolved long ago under conditions we can’t determine.”

“Musk ducks must have evolved it much more recently,” ten Cate continued. “We can look at them and related species [that can’t learn vocally] and work out what the differences are.”

One notable clue lies in the fact Australian musk ducks get much longer and more intense maternal care than other waterfowl.

Ripper hatched in 1983 at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, having been incubated by a bantam hen and then raised by hand.

While at CSIRO Wildlife Research, ornithologist Peter Fullagar visited Tidbinbilla regularly and heard from the staff there about Ripper’s capacities. He recorded the sounds Ripper made and placed them in the Australian Sound Archive. The existence of a talking duck was mentioned in books on Australian birds and a PhD thesis, but not really studied during Ripper’s life.

IFLScience · Duck Imitating Door


Two decades later, ten Cate was working on a review of vocal learning across bird species. After encountering passing references he tracked down the recordings, and eventually Fullagar. The pair collaborated, turning Ripper’s sound files into sonograms and comparing their shape to humans saying “You bloody fool” or “You bloody food” to confirm the match.

Unfortunately, however, Tidbinbilla was devastated in a bushfire, and many records of Ripper’s life were lost. His keeper has also died, leaving important questions unanswered. For example, ten Cate told IFLScience that we don’t know what female musk ducks thought of Ripper’s mild profanity.

Besides Ripper, Fullagar also recorded another Australian musk duck that showed less memorable vocal learning, imitating the sounds of Pacific ducks, many of which lived nearby.

Ten Cate has previously revealed females of another Australian bird, the budgerigar, find intelligence sexy. He agreed that unrelated Australian birds appear to have a particular facility for vocal learning and related skills, and said it was unclear if this was a coincidence or a product of some distinctive feature of the continent.

The work may inspire vocal researchers to raise other male B. lobate in captivity and see if they are told to duck off.


Duck species can imitate sounds

Duck species can imitate sounds
Male, Sandford, Tasmania, Australia. Credit: JJ Harrison (jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0

That a parrot can copycat sounds is nothing new. But vocal learning is not common in animals. Researcher Carel ten Cate of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) of Leiden University has now discovered a duck species that can imitate sounds. "It started with an obscure reference about an Australian musk duck and ended in a nice paper."

Being able to learn how to make particular sounds is a rare characteristic. This  occurs in humans as well as in some dolphins, whales, elephants and bats. But for most mammals, it does not seem to be in their nature. A barking cat, mooing mouse or singing giraffe: you won't be coming across them anytime soon.

Rare in birds too

However, some birds may be able to do this, Ten Cate tells. "Although also for this group, vocal learning is rare. We know that songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds can learn to make specific sounds. This includes many , but that is because vocal learning originated in the ancestral species of these groups." Therefore, researchers generally assume that vocal learning evolved in only three of the 35 orders in which all bird species are classified.

"You bloody foo"

With the discovery of imitating , Ten Cate introduces a new order into this elite group. He was compiling his knowledge on vocal learning on  into a review when he came upon an obscure reference about an Australian musk duck (Biziura lobata). The animal was reported to imitate a human voice, sounding like 'you bloody foo(l)".

The duck was also reported to be able to imitate other sounds, such as a slamming door. "This came as a big surprise. Because even though the bird was recorded 35 years ago, it remained unnoticed by researchers in the vocal learning field until now," Ten Cate elaborates. "That makes it a very special rediscovery."

He tried to trace the source of the recording, with success. It appeared to be an Australian birder who recorded the duck around 1987. "The man, Peter Fullagar, told me that the duck was hand reared and would have had heard the sound as a duckling," Ten Cate says. He analysed the recordings in detail and published them with Fullagar as co-author. Additionally, they discovered other cases of musk ducks that imitated noises, such as a snorting pony, the cough of a caretaker and a squeaking door.

Equal quality

The observations indisputably show that this duck species can imitate a surprising and divergent range of sounds. "It is the only  outside of earlier mentioned groups that shows this quality of imitation. And the level at which they can do this is similar to other imitating species."

In the , the duck branch split off early from the other bird groups. "To observe vocal learning in such a group makes this find extra remarkable," Ten Cate concludes. It is not yet clear why this particular species is capable of vocal learning.

Baby birds tune in from egg, study finds

More information: Vocal imitations and production learning by Australian musk ducks (Biziura lobata). Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 20200243. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0243

Re-evaluating vocal production learning in non-oscine birds. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 20200249. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0249

Provided by Leiden University 

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