- A lovelorn Muscovy duck has startled wildfowl experts
by waddling eight miles across country to return to his mate, an epic four-week
journey.
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- The return of Jake, whose sex drive proved too much for
a park where he fathered 23 ducklings, has raised questions about a pining
instinct in the breed.
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- Muscovy ducks are not known to have any homing ability,
but Jake managed to steer his way across a sizeable chunk of north Devon.
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- The two-year-old drake was expelled from Kentisbury Grange
country park because of a population crisis, which threatened to lead to
young male birds turning on females and killing them.
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- The park's owner, Roy Shingler, said: "[Jake] would
jump on anything. He is responsible for most of the births here, so he
had to go really."
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- But the bird's sale to a family in Barnstaple reckoned
without Jake's feelings for Jemima, the duck that mothered most of his
brood, whatever his alleged promiscuity.
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- "It is remarkable," said wildfowl specialist
Paul Ellis, also from Devon. "Muscovy ducks are unwilling to fly any
significant distance and have have no natural homing instincts at all.
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- "But they do pine for their partners. There are
cases where they have been known to die if they can't get back to their
partners again."
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- Mr Shingler said: "When we got him back to the park
he immediately raced over to Jemima and jumped straight on her back."
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- He added: "He will stay here. We can't get rid of
him now, after he completed such a mammoth trip."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1445281,00.html
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