A quick google search reveals that cannibalism is a "vice" that ducks are known to sometimes develop. As noted on an Australian government website about the brooding and rearing of ducks:
Although cannibalism can begin in ducks of any age, ducklings over 4 weeks old are more prone to develop this vice. The underlying reasons for birds turning to cannibalism are not known, but it is associated with boredom and is aggravated by:
overcrowding
lack of ventilation
faulty nutrition.
The only known way to stop it is to remove the rim at the front of the bird’s upper bill. Commercial beak-trimming machines are available. They have heated cauterising blades and run on electricity or butane gas. Beak trimming should be performed only by a competent operator and only when it is essential to reduce damage and suffering in the flock.
Given digital technology, would it not be easy to install a speaker under your hood which broadcast an infinite number of digital sound files on command?
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all enjoy your turkey dinner — and that your frozen turkey doesn't come back to life.
Sioux Center News - Nov 28, 1940
Frozen Turkey Comes Back To Life
Following the snow storm Neal Spaan, Orange City hatchery man loaded up his frozen turkeys and peddled them. One customer, wanting to keep the turkey frozen for a few days put it into a snow bank and covered it with snow. When he came to dig it up the turkey lifted its head, stood up, shook off the snow and calmly walked away.
I've heard about people sucking on pennies or mints to hide the alcohol fumes on their breath. But keeping a goat in the back of the car is new to me. Though I guess it could be an effective strategy.
The Bakersfield Californian - Sep 14, 1937
CHICAGO, Sept. 14. — Policeman Theodore Lambert testified that Larry Radkewicz of Berwyn was intoxicated while driving an automobile, but said he could not smell the man's breath.
"Why not?" asked Judge J.M. Braude.
"He had a goat in the back of the car," said Lambert, "and I couldn't smell anything but the goat."
Radkewicz was placed on probation.
Nationwide Insurance has created the "Hambone Award" which, for the past five years, it's been giving to the most unusual pet insurance claim of the year. It seems to be like a Darwin Awards for animals, except they only give awards to animals that recover from their mishaps, not the ones that die. (Are Darwin Awards given to animals? I'm not sure.)
The Hambone Award was named after a "dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him."
The most recent winner is Curtis, a 5-year-old Boxer, who ate an entire BBQ skewer during a birthday party. He was rushed to the hospital, but doctors couldn't find the skewer. It was only a year later, when he was taken back to the doctor because he still wasn't feeling well, that surgeons found the skewer, which had become a "baseball-sized mass" encapsulated by the body, located between the dog's stomach and pancreas.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.