5 ms·

Duck says ‘You bloody fool’ and can imitate other sound, scientists fascinated

36 points by Pikkie 5y ago

swader999 5y ago
This quacks me up.
- daveslash 5y ago
  I'm not amused at such fowl language.
  - rapnie 5y ago
    Then just duck and cover.
- projectramo 5y ago
  What’s “up”, doc?
marcodiego 5y ago
The fact that the video did not play made me think it was a joke.
- 3np 5y ago
  It's from yt so I guess you have some ad/track blocker https://ytprivate.com/watch?v=MSJsKpKKBaI https://ytprivate.com/watch?v=MSJsKpKKBaI
smcl 5y ago
Something similar appeared recently, in case anyone's interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28397524 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28397524 A seal called "Hoover" that had a remarkably human sounding call :D
dagmx 5y ago
The video wouldn't play. Here's one from YouTube instead https://youtu.be/46RSYCXwSXo https://youtu.be/46RSYCXwSXo
- cestith 5y ago
  I'd really like a video actually showing the duck making the sounds rather than an animated duck with an audio recording. Thanks for the better video than on the original link, though.
only_as_i_fall 5y ago
We're so close to Canadian geese that just yell "fuck you" all day. The future is bright
- mountain_peak 5y ago
  Quick tip on moving Canada Geese out of the way without aggressive behaviour (from you or them): lift your arm up just above your head to make an "S" shape and pinch your fingers to make a goose "beak", then move your hand horizontally in a back-and-forth motion. The only threat geese seem to understand is a larger goose and they are "programmed" to back down when encountering a much larger goose (i.e. you). If you are wearing a black long sleeve shirt, the effect is even more apparent, and the geese will run away and bow their heads as a sign of submissive behaviour. You can even make your own "hissing" noise and the geese will scatter very quickly. Note that this will not work if a nest is being guarded, or if there are goslings. In those cases, it's best to just avoid the geese, if possible.
samstave 5y ago
Funnily, I was walking along the American River yesterday morning, and there were some ducks quacking away in the river - but their quacks literally sounded like someone with a deep belly laugh HA HA HA HA HA HA HA It was rather eerie. And there were two of them doing this back and forth, it sounded like the two were telling eachother really funny duck jokes...
brink 5y ago
> and scientists couldn’t be more fascinated Wow, the scientists are really at max fascination? Has that ever happened before? That's amazing. I think the story should be about that.
- JeremyBanks 5y ago
  Let me introduce you to this thing called rhetoric....
mdip 5y ago
Interesting ... I wonder what other animals and what capacity they have to learn to mimick language. Anecdotally, we have a small poodle. She's an unusually vocal dog -- not a guard dog; she rarely barks at people, but we noticed early on that her barking sounds like the word "what", so we've always riled her up by saying "what" to her and watching her repeat. We've noticed if we vary the sounds (two barks, three barks), she'll often concentrate and then reliably repeat the pattern, but it rarely sounds anything similar to the original sound. Fast forward to two weeks ago when I was recovering from strep throat. I lost my voice but the dog had a lot of energy and wanted to horse around, so I looked at her and said "what", but my "what" was very deep, rumbling and monotone. The dog looked at me for a second, let out a low rumbling growl and said "wha" in the lowest sound she could muster. I laughed, did it again, and she repeated it, successfully, several times in a row (missing one or two).
ASalazarMX 5y ago
> while most mammals are born with innate vocalization abilities, humans are not. Maybe I'm not understanding the nuances of this statement, but in my experience, newborns of all origins have very similar vocalizations, and babies that can't speak yet say "ugh ugh" or similar guttural monosyllables.
towb 5y ago
Swearing a lot at ducks while fishing, never got more than a quack back so far and I hope it stays that way, but I'll keep my ears open!
skykooler 5y ago
That's a way more intelligible voice than I was expecting.

36 points by Pikkie 5y ago

swader999 5y ago

This quacks me up.

daveslash 5y ago
I'm not amused at such fowl language.
- rapnie 5y ago
  Then just duck and cover.
projectramo 5y ago
What’s “up”, doc?

marcodiego 5y ago

The fact that the video did not play made me think it was a joke.

3np 5y ago
It's from yt so I guess you have some ad/track blocker https://ytprivate.com/watch?v=MSJsKpKKBaI https://ytprivate.com/watch?v=MSJsKpKKBaI

smcl 5y ago

Something similar appeared recently, in case anyone's interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28397524 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28397524 A seal called "Hoover" that had a remarkably human sounding call :D

dagmx 5y ago

The video wouldn't play. Here's one from YouTube instead https://youtu.be/46RSYCXwSXo https://youtu.be/46RSYCXwSXo

cestith 5y ago
I'd really like a video actually showing the duck making the sounds rather than an animated duck with an audio recording. Thanks for the better video than on the original link, though.

only_as_i_fall 5y ago

We're so close to Canadian geese that just yell "fuck you" all day. The future is bright

mountain_peak 5y ago
Quick tip on moving Canada Geese out of the way without aggressive behaviour (from you or them): lift your arm up just above your head to make an "S" shape and pinch your fingers to make a goose "beak", then move your hand horizontally in a back-and-forth motion. The only threat geese seem to understand is a larger goose and they are "programmed" to back down when encountering a much larger goose (i.e. you). If you are wearing a black long sleeve shirt, the effect is even more apparent, and the geese will run away and bow their heads as a sign of submissive behaviour. You can even make your own "hissing" noise and the geese will scatter very quickly. Note that this will not work if a nest is being guarded, or if there are goslings. In those cases, it's best to just avoid the geese, if possible.

samstave 5y ago

Funnily, I was walking along the American River yesterday morning, and there were some ducks quacking away in the river - but their quacks literally sounded like someone with a deep belly laugh HA HA HA HA HA HA HA It was rather eerie. And there were two of them doing this back and forth, it sounded like the two were telling eachother really funny duck jokes...

brink 5y ago

> and scientists couldn’t be more fascinated Wow, the scientists are really at max fascination? Has that ever happened before? That's amazing. I think the story should be about that.

JeremyBanks 5y ago
Let me introduce you to this thing called rhetoric....

mdip 5y ago

Interesting ... I wonder what other animals and what capacity they have to learn to mimick language. Anecdotally, we have a small poodle. She's an unusually vocal dog -- not a guard dog; she rarely barks at people, but we noticed early on that her barking sounds like the word "what", so we've always riled her up by saying "what" to her and watching her repeat. We've noticed if we vary the sounds (two barks, three barks), she'll often concentrate and then reliably repeat the pattern, but it rarely sounds anything similar to the original sound. Fast forward to two weeks ago when I was recovering from strep throat. I lost my voice but the dog had a lot of energy and wanted to horse around, so I looked at her and said "what", but my "what" was very deep, rumbling and monotone. The dog looked at me for a second, let out a low rumbling growl and said "wha" in the lowest sound she could muster. I laughed, did it again, and she repeated it, successfully, several times in a row (missing one or two).

ASalazarMX 5y ago

> while most mammals are born with innate vocalization abilities, humans are not. Maybe I'm not understanding the nuances of this statement, but in my experience, newborns of all origins have very similar vocalizations, and babies that can't speak yet say "ugh ugh" or similar guttural monosyllables.

towb 5y ago

Swearing a lot at ducks while fishing, never got more than a quack back so far and I hope it stays that way, but I'll keep my ears open!

skykooler 5y ago

That's a way more intelligible voice than I was expecting.