Kees Moeliker is a Dutch biologist and one he had the misfortune or fortune, depending on your point of view, to hear a duck flying into the side of the building he was working in. He was working in the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam which had a new wing made of glass and regularly had birds crashing in to it and dying.

When Moeliker actually happened on the dead duck he saw two male ducks, one living and one dead. The living duck actually mounted the dead one and started to copulate with it. Was this the first observed case of homosexual necrophilia in ducks he wondered?

6 years later he published a paper called ‘The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos’ and the rest is history. Kess has become a leading expert into the strange behaviour of animals. As he says himself ‘If there’s an animal misbehaving on this planet, I know about it!’

But he contends that his research isn’t just some ‘quirky’ pursuit but his work points towards the fact that a lot of animal behaviour is becoming strange because of human actions and what we’re doing to the world.

It might also interest you to know that Kees is now collecting pubic lice. Modern pubic-hair grooming practices, such as the Brazilian are destroying the natural habitat of the humble pubic louse. Kees doesn’t want them to become fully extinct

To hear all about this strange and wonderful work tune in Futureproof this Saturday at 10am.