Watch: This musk duck imitates human sounds, says ‘you bloody fool’

You must have heard birds like parrots, hummingbirds and songbirds imitate what their human caretakers say. Now, adding to that list is the talking musk ducks that can imitate sounds, including human speech, with one bird recorded repeatedly saying “you bloody fool”, according to a new study.

Ripper, a male musk duck reared in captivity at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, south west of Canberra, was recorded vocalising not just “you bloody fool” but also the sound of doors slamming shut as well. Researchers believe it was a phrase Ripper likely heard repeatedly from his caretaker.

Retired Australian researcher Dr Peter Fullagar first recorded Ripper more than three decades ago. But his recordings were resurfaced recently by Prof Carel ten Cate of Leiden University in the Netherlands – as a reference to a talking duck in a book on bird vocalisations.

“When I read it at first, I thought ‘it’s a hoax, it can’t be true.’ But it turned out to be true,” ten Cate said while sharing that he was only convinced after hearing Fullagar’s recordings.

Though the recording sounds like “you bloody fool”, ten Cate said it was possible Ripper was saying “food”. “I can imagine that the caretaker would jokingly say, ‘Okay, here is your bloody food’.”

However, Ripper is not the only musk duck to have tried to imitate the surrounding sounds. Fullagar recorded a second duck at Tidbinbilla in 2000 imitating a different duck species.

The researchers also note at least two other musk ducks with similar skills, though no recordings exist.

As per ‘The Guardian’s’ report, one duck in Pensthorpe Natural Park in the UK has been heard “coughing and [mimicking] a snorting pony”, while one at Slimbridge wildfowl trust was observed reproducing “the characteristic cough of his bird keeper and also of a squeak of a turnstile”.