This is the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, where I work as a curator. It's my job to make sure the collection stays okay, and that it grows, and basically it means I collect dead animals. Back in 1995, we got a new wing next to the museum. It was made of glass, and this building really helped me to do my job good. The building was a true bird-killer. You may know that birds don't understand the concept of glass. They don't see it, so they fly into the windows and get killed. The only thing I had to do was go out, pick them up, and have them stuffed for the collection. (Laughter) And in those days, I developed an ear to identify birds just by the sound of the bangs they made against the glass.
Ovo je Prirodnjački muzej u Roterdamu, gde radim kao kustos. Moj posao je da obezbedim da kolekcija bude u redu, da se uvećava, a to bukvalno znači da sakupljam mrtve životinje. 1995. godine, dobili smo novo krilo muzeja. Napravljeno je od stakla, i ta zgrada mi je značajno olakšala posao. Zgrada je bila pravi ubica ptica. Možda vam je poznato da ptice ne razumeju koncept stakla. Ne vide ga, tako da naleću na prozore i umiru. Jedina stvar koju bi trebalo da uradim jeste da izađem, pokupim ih i dam na prepariranje za kolekciju. (Smeh) I u tim danima, razvio sam sluh da prepoznam ptice samo po zvuku udara koji se čuje kada nalete na staklo.
And it was on June 5, 1995, that I heard a loud bang against the glass that changed my life and ended that of a duck. And this is what I saw when I looked out of the window. This is the dead duck. It flew against the window. It's laying dead on its belly. But next to the dead duck is a live duck, and please pay attention. Both are of the male sex. And then this happened. The live duck mounted the dead duck, and started to copulate.
I 5. juna 1995., sam čuo jak udar u staklo koji mi je promenio život, a okončao život jedne patke. I evo šta sam video kada sam pogledao kroz prozor. Ovo je mrtva patka. Naletela je na prozor. Leži mrtva na stomaku. Ali pokraj mrtve patke je živa patka i molim vas obratite pažnju. Obe su muškog pola. I onda se desilo ovo. Živa patka se popela na mrtvu patku i započela kopulaciju.
Well, I'm a biologist. I'm an ornithologist. I said, "Something's wrong here." One is dead, one is alive. That must be necrophilia. I look. Both are of the male sex. Homosexual necrophilia.
Ja sam biolog. Ornitolog. Pomislio sam: "Ovde nešto nije u redu." Jedna je mrtva, jedna je živa. Mora da je nekrofilija. Pogledao sam. Obe su muškog pola. Homoseksulana nekrofilija.
So I -- (Laughter)
Tako sam - (Smeh)
I took my camera, I took my notebook, took a chair, and started to observe this behavior. After 75 minutes — (Laughter) — I had seen enough, and I got hungry, and I wanted to go home. So I went out, collected the duck, and before I put it in the freezer, I checked if the victim was indeed of the male sex. And here's a rare picture of a duck's penis, so it was indeed of the male sex. It's a rare picture because there are 10,000 species of birds and only 300 possess a penis.
uzeo svoju kameru, uzeo svesku, stolicu i počeo da posmatram ovo ponašanje. Posle 75 minuta - (Smeh) - video sam dovoljno i ogladneo i poželeo da odem kući. Tako sam otišao, pokupio patku i pre nego što sam je stavio u zamrzivač, proverio sam da li je žrtva zaista muškog pola. Ovo je retka slika pačijeg penisa, tako da je zaista bila muškog pola. Retka je slika jer postoji 10 000 vrsta ptica i samo 300 poseduje penis.
[The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves:Anatidae)]
[Prvi slučaj homoseksualne nekrofilije kod divlje patke Anas platyrhynchos (Aves:Anatiadae)]
I knew I'd seen something special, but it took me six years to decide to publish it. (Laughter) I mean, it's a nice topic for a birthday party or at the coffee machine, but to share this among your peers is something different. I didn't have the framework. So after six years, my friends and colleagues urged me to publish, so I published "The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard." And here's the situation again. A is my office, B is the place where the duck hit the glass, and C is from where I watched it. And here are the ducks again.
Znao sam da sam video nešto posebno, ali trebalo mi je šest godina da odlučim da to objavim. (Smeh) Mislim, to je zanimljiva tema za rođendansku žurku ili za ispred automata za kafu, ali podeliti ovo sa vašim kolegama je nešto drugo. Nisam imao okvir. Tako da sam nakon šest godina, pod pritiskom prijatelja i kolega, objavio "Prvi slučaj homoseksualne nekrofilije kod divlje patke". I evo te situacije još jednom. A je moja kancelarija, B je mesto gde je patka udarila o staklo i C je mesto odakle sam ja posmatrao. I evo pataka ponovo.
As you probably know, in science, when you write a kind of special paper, only six or seven people read it. (Laughter) But then something good happened. I got a phone call from a person called Marc Abrahams, and he told me, "You've won a prize with your duck paper: the Ig Nobel Prize." And the Ig Nobel Prize — (Laughter) (Applause) — the Ig Nobel Prize honors research that first makes people laugh, and then makes them think, with the ultimate goal to make more people interested in science. That's a good thing, so I accepted the prize. (Laughter)
Kao što verovatno znate, u nauci, kada napišete neku posebnu vrstu rada, svega šestoro ili sedmoro ljudi to i pročita. (Smeh) Ali onda se desilo nešto dobro. Zvao me je čovek po imenu Mark Abrahams, i rekao mi: "Dobio si nagradu za svoj rad o patki, Ig Nobel nagradu." A Ig Nobel nagrada - (Smeh) (Aplauz) - Ig Nobel nagrada se dodeljuje istraživačkim radovima koji prvo nateraju ljude na smeh, a potom ih nateraju da se zamisle, sa ciljem da navedu više ljudi da se zainteresuje za nauku. To je dobra stvar, tako da sam prihvatio nagradu. (Smeh)
I went -- let me remind you that Marc Abrahams didn't call me from Stockholm. He called me from Cambridge, Massachusetts. So I traveled to Boston, to Cambridge, and I went to this wonderful Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held at Harvard University, and this ceremony is a very nice experience. Real Nobel laureates hand you the prize. That's the first thing. And there are nine other winners who get prizes. Here's one of my fellow winners. That's Charles Paxton who won the 2000 biology prize for his paper, "Courtship behavior of ostriches towards humans under farming conditions in Britain." (Laughter) And I think there are one or two more Ig Nobel Prize winners in this room. Dan, where are you? Dan Ariely? Applause for Dan. (Applause) Dan won his prize in medicine for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine works better than low-priced fake medicine. (Laughter)
Otišao sam - da vas podsetim da me Mark Abrahams nije pozvao iz Stokholma. Zvao me je iz Kembridža, Masačusets. Tako da sam otputovao u Boston, u Kembridž, i otišao na ovu predivnu Ig Nobel ceremoniju koja se održavala na Harvard Univerzitetu i veoma je lepo iskustvo. Pravi laureati Nobelove nagrade vam dodeljuju nagradu. To je prva stvar. I postoji još devet drugih dobitnika ove nagrade. Ovo je moj kolega dobitnik, Čarls Pakston koji je 2000. dobio nagradu iz biologije za svoj rad, "Udvaračko ponašanje nojeva prema ljudima u poljoprivrednim uslovima u Britaniji". (Smeh) I mislim da imamo jednog ili dvoje dobitnika Ig Nobel nagrade u ovoj prostoriji. Den, gde si? Den Arijeli? Aplauz za Dena. (Aplauz) Den je dobio nagradu iz medicine jer je dokazao da skuplje lažne tablete deluju bolje od jeftinih. (Smeh)
So here's my one minute of fame, my acceptance speech, and here's the duck. This is its first time on the U.S. West Coast. I'm going to pass it around. (Laughter) Yeah? You can pass it around. Please note it's a museum specimen, but there's no chance you'll get the avian flu.
I evo mog minuta slave, moj govor prilikom dodele nagrade i evo je patka. Ovo joj je prvi put na zapadnoj američkoj obali. Dodaću je naokolo. (Smeh) Da? Možete je proslediti naokolo. Molim vas obratite pažnju da je to muzejski primerak, ali nema šanse da dobijete ptičji grip.
After winning this prize, my life changed. In the first place, people started to send me all kinds of duck-related things, and I got a real nice collection. (Laughter) More importantly, people started to send me their observations of remarkable animal behavior, and believe me, if there's an animal misbehaving on this planet, I know about it.
Nakon što sam dobio ovu nagradu, moj život se promenio. Na prvom mestu, ljudi su počeli da mi šalju svakakve stvari povezane sa patkama, tako da sam napravio prilično lepu kolekciju. (Smeh) Važnije od toga, ljudi su počeli da mi šalju svoja zapažanja zanimljivog životinjskog ponašanja i verujte mi, ako se neka životinja čudno ponaša na ovoj planeti, ja znam za to.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
This is a moose. It's a moose trying to copulate with a bronze statue of a bison. This is in Montana, 2008. This is a frog that tries to copulate with a goldfish. This is the Netherlands, 2011. These are cane toads in Australia. This is roadkill. Please note that this is necrophilia. It's remarkable: the position. The missionary position is very rare in the animal kingdom. These are pigeons in Rotterdam. Barn swallows in Hong Kong, 2004. This is a turkey in Wisconsin on the premises of the Ethan Allen juvenile correctional institution. It took all day, and the prisoners had a great time.
Ovo je los. To je los koji pokušava kopulaciju sa bronzanom statuom bizona. Ovo je Montana, 2008. Ovo je žaba koja pokušava kopulaciju sa zlatnom ribicom. Ovo je Holandija, 2011. Ovo su žabe krastače u Australiji. Ovo je leš na putu. Primetite da je ovo nekrofilija. Zanimljiv je položaj. Misionarska poza je veoma retka u životinjskom carstvu. Ovo su golubovi u Roterdamu. Laste u Hong Kongu, 2004. Ovo je ćurka u Viskonsinu u prostoru kazneno-popravnog zavoda za maloletnike, Etan Alen. Trajalo je ceo dan i zatvorenici su se dobro proveli.
So what does this mean? I mean, the question I ask myself, why does this happen in nature? Well, what I concluded from reviewing all these cases is that it is important that this happens only when death is instant and in a dramatic way and in the right position for copulation. At least, I thought it was till I got these slides. And here you see a dead duck. It's been there for three days, and it's laying on its back. So there goes my theory of necrophilia.
Pa šta ovo znači? Pitanje koje sebi postavljam je, zašto se ovo dešava u prirodi? Ono što sam zaključio pregledavši sve ove slučajeve jeste da je važno da do ovoga dolazi samo kada je smrt iznenadna, dramatična, i kada je poza odgovarajuća za kopulaciju. Bar sam mislio tako dok nisam dobio ove slajdove. I ovde vidite mrtvu patku. Tu je tri dana i leži na leđima. I tako ode moja teorija o nekrofiliji.
Another example of the impact of glass buildings on the life of birds. This is Mad Max, a blackbird who lives in Rotterdam. The only thing this bird did was fly against this window from 2004 to 2008, day in and day out. Here he goes, and here's a short video.
Sledeći primer uticaja staklenih zgrada na život ptica. Ovo je Ludi Maks, crni kos koji živi u Roterdamu. Jedina stvar koju je ova ptica radila jeste da leti u prozor od 2004. do 2008., iz dana u dan. Evo ga i evo kratkog videa.
(Music) (Clunk) (Clunk) (Clunk) (Clunk)
(Muzika) (Udarac) (Udarac) (Udarac) (Udarac)
So what this bird does is fight his own image. He sees an intruder in his territory, and it's coming all the time and he's there, so there is no end to it. And I thought, in the beginning -- I studied this bird for a couple of years -- that, well, shouldn't the brain of this bird be damaged? It's not. I show you here some slides, some frames from the video, and at the last moment before he hits the glass, he puts his feet in front, and then he bangs against the glass.
Ova ptica se bori sa svojom slikom. On vidi uljeza na svojoj teritoriji i dolazi sve vreme i uvek je tu, tako da tome nema kraja. I mislio sam na početku - proučavao sam ovu pticu par godina - zar ne bi trebalo da mozak ove ptice bude oštećen? Nije. Pokazaću vam ovde neke slajdove, isečke ovog videa, u poslednjem trenutku pre nego što udari u staklo, on postavi noge ispred i tek onda udari o staklo.
So I'll conclude to invite you all to Dead Duck Day. That's on June 5 every year. At five minutes to six in the afternoon, we come together at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, the duck comes out of the museum, and we try to discuss new ways to prevent birds from colliding with windows. And as you know, or as you may not know, this is one of the major causes of death for birds in the world. In the U.S. alone, a billion birds die in collision with glass buildings. And when it's over, we go to a Chinese restaurant and we have a six-course duck dinner.
Zaključiću tako što ću vas sve pozvati na Dan mrtve patke. To je 5. juna svake godine. U pet do šest popodne, okupimo se u Prirodnjačkom muzeju u Roterdamu, patka izađe iz muzeja i pokušavamo da dođemo do novih načina da sprečimo sudaranje ptica sa prozorima. I kao što znate ili možda ne znate, to je jedan od glavnih uzroka smrti u ptičjem svetu. Samo u Americi, milijardu ptica ugine u sudaru sa staklenim zgradama. I kada završimo sa tim, idemo u kineski restoran i imamo 6 jela od patke za večeru.
So I hope to see you next year in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for Dead Duck Day. Thank you.
Nadam se da ću vas videti naredne godine u Roterdamu, u Holandiji, na Dan mrtve patke. Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Oh, sorry. May I have my duck back, please?
Oh, izvinite. Mogu li dobiti nazad svoju patku, molim vas?
(Laughter) (Applause)
(Smeh) (Aplauz)
Thank you.
Hvala.