Desperate ducks get offer of help

Drakes going quackers over a lack of female companionship in a Yorkshire town beck have had an offer from the south.

Dozens of males in Cod Beck, Thirsk, have been fighting over partners and Thirsk Town Council received complaints that the aggressive behaviour may be frightening children.

The council turned to The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for advice.

The RSPB suggested a ban on feeding the ducks might encourage them to disperse but heritage farm attraction Kent Life made a more romantic offer.

Kent Life director John Jordan said: “Ducks can become very aggressive in the mating season, and it sounds as though there are real problems happening in Thirsk with such a female duck shortage.”

He suggested the heritage farm could provide more female ducks but the idea got a lukewarm response from town councillor Alan Morton who believed the solution lay in reducing the male population rather than increasing the number of females.

“We have more than enough ducks,” he said.