Duck Stampede!

Some of you have probably already seen a copy of this video that's recently gone viral on various tube sites and in animated gifs:



My first thought was of course, "what the hell is that?!"

Duck insurgency?
The running of the ducks?
A sign of the apocalypse?

There was nothing in the video, the description or comments that explains it, so I did a little googling and I came up with an answer on Wikipedia:

Indian Runner Duck

Indian Runners (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) are an unusual breed of domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddling, they run. The females usually lay about 150 – 200 eggs a year or more, depending whether they are from exhibition or utility strains. They were found on the Indonesian Islands of Lombok, Java and Bali where they were 'walked' to market and sold as egg-layers or for meat. These ducks do not fly and only rarely form nests and incubate their own eggs. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs wherever they happen to be. Duck-breeders need to house their birds overnight or be vigilant in picking up the eggs to prevent them from being taken by other animals.

Wow crazy. Good thing they aren't ferocious lol.

Duck herding? Someone is eating good right now, lol.

a reply to: theantediluvian

That's hilarious. It's like a duck tsunami.

I don't know what it is, but I certainly wouldn't continue on in the direction they were coming from.... at least not for a while. I would be wondering what the hell caused that kind of mass exodus down the road!!

A sea of ducks is what it looks like! Wild!

a reply to: theantediluvian

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....


But seriously ..what the hell?

Not gonna lie, I would have probably crapped myself if I had been in that car.

For the sake of the drivers... I really hope that they have decent grabbers as ducks tend to have a facetious habit of laying liquid duck eggs wherever they go?

Reminds me of the rabbit attack :



Kindest respects

Rodinus

interesting....they are on the ground, but still move like they were flying in a flock formation.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
interesting....they are on the ground, but still move like they were flying in a flock formation.

Probably as they are skating along quite smoothly on all that poo that they have spread and that you cannot see...

Kindest respects

Rod

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
interesting....they are on the ground, but still move like they were flying in a flock formation.

Yep. Flocks, herds, schools and swarms all exhibit emergent behaviors arising from a couple of simple rules.

EDIT:

From Wikipedia

Flocking behavior is the behavior exhibited when a group of birds, called a flock, are foraging or in flight. There are parallels with the shoaling behavior of fish, the swarming behavior of insects, and herd behavior of land animals.

Computer simulations and mathematical models which have been developed to emulate the flocking behaviors of birds can generally be applied also to the "flocking" behavior of other species. As a result, the term "flocking" is sometimes applied, in computer science, to species other than birds.