I.R.D.A.

MARCH 2008 NEWSLETTER IS NOW OUT

Indian Runners are a very special breed of domestic duck. When they were first imported into Europe nearly two hundred years ago they attracted attention because of their tall, upright bodies and their incredible reputation for egg-laying. They had been found in the East Indies, from which they get their present name, but were referred to as ‘Penguin Ducks’ by Dutch explorers and some of the early importers.

The INDIAN RUNNER DUCK ASSOCIATION was created to look after the health and welfare of this unique duck and to help those people who keep, breed and show pure Indian Runners. Set up in 2000 by a group of waterfowl breeders in the UK, this club has attracted interest from both exhibitors and pet-keepers. There has also been contact from commercial duck-keepers and from artists who paint and model these graceful birds. One of the main functions of the Association is to bring together Runner enthusiasts by providing newsletters, information sheets and useful contacts.

The Indian Runner, like most breeds of domestic duck, is a development of the wild mallard. Its evolution was probably determined more by human influence than natural selection over the 2000 years they have been in the islands of Indonesia. They are set apart from other domestic ducks not only by the geography but in their shape, bone structure and blood proteins. They are unique, and that is why the INDIAN RUNNER DUCK ASSOCIATION wishes to protect the breed.

The Runners have been a determining factor in the commercial market, especially for quick-growing egg-layers but also for adding cross-breed vigour to the traditional table breeds, like Aylesbury and Rouen. From their early importation they were crossed with other domestic ducks to such an extent that the pure Indian Runners were almost extinct in Britain by the beginning of the twentieth century. They were used to create Khaki Campbells, Buff Orpingtons and the rush of 'Light Ducks' that now fill the commercial farms and exhibition pens.

It was only by the enthusiasm of people like Joseph Walton and Matthew Smith that fresh importations were made in the early 1900s and the pure breed Indian Runners are still to be found alongside their cross-breed relatives. It is one of the aims of the INDIAN RUNNER DUCK ASSOCIATION to preserve the purity of the breed and contribute to the accurate standardization of the Indian Runner Duck.

History

Indian Runners came from the East Indies and, as one would expect, they run rather than waddle. The name is fairly explicit, but it does not do justice to one of the most extraordinary of domestic ducks.

Often lumped in with the ‘light ducks’, they now have a show section all to themselves. They are unique in the extreme body shape and posture, looking to the inexperienced eye more like hock bottles than normal ducks. Yet it was their utility value as egg layers that brought them and their fame to this country, where they were exhibited in Dumfries in 1876 and Kendal in 1896.

Records of stone carvings in Java seem to suggest an origin of two thousand years or more. The Europeans noted them in the mid 19^th century, in Malaya (1851) and Lombok, Indonesia, where Alfred Wallace in 1856 said they ‘walk erect, like penguins’¹. However, circumstantial evidence would suggest that oriental ducks reached Western Europe much earlier than the nineteenth century. Kenneth Broekman has alerted us to late sixteenth century Dutch records showing that van Houtman’s ship, the Ysselstein, carried a cargo of salted ‘pinguin ducks’. Also a number of Lowland breeds, such as the Huttegem, carry colour genes very similar to the Indian Runners. Examples of these mutations can be seen in seventeenth century Dutch paintings like those of the d’Hondecoeter family.

‘Speckled Drake’ by Gysbert Gillizoon d’Hondecoeter

‘One thing certain is that the Indian Runner is not a breed made by the fancier.’² Appleyard was asserting that this duck was no mere aesthetic creation nor one of the designer breeds that were deliberately produced from it in the early 20^th century. Indian Runners are likely to have evolved in parts of the Far East over an extensive period of time. They were to become agile and hardly foragers, prolific egg-layers and surprisingly meaty table birds. ‘The flesh is abundant for the size of body, fine in quality and well flavoured.’³ They also have the reputation of being non-fliers and non-sitters, though there are numerous exceptions to the latter. Zollinger⁴ (1851) explains how they were used in the nineteenth century: ‘They are principally reared on account of the eggs, which are immediately salted, and form an article of food much prized by the inhabitants. They are very cheap. Many are sold to sailors of ships who store them for their voyages.’ Wallace also notes that the birds themselves (known as ‘Baly Soldiers’) were also consumed by crews of rice ships. The birds were then referred to as ‘Penguin Ducks’.

Not surprisingly the first reference to India Runners by J. Donald⁵ reveals an account of an importation of a drake and trio of ducks by a sea captain to Whitehaven some time before 1840. Professor Dr Wolfgang Rudolph⁶ has found records from the Surrey Zoological Gardens that show imports to the London Zoo on 31 October 1835 by the 13^th Earl of Derby.

By 1901 most of the Indian Runners in Britain showed evidence of having been crossed with indigenous domestic and wild ducks. The original Fawn Runners had died out in favour of the pied (Fawn-and-white and Grey-and-white), which were standardized at that time, and it was not until 1909 that Joseph Walton managed to import fresh stock from Lombok and Java. This completely rejuvenated the bloodlines and contributed much to the modern development of the Indian Runner.

More detailed information on this historical development can be found in The Indian Runner Duck: A Historical Guide (Feathered World, 2002). This book is obtainable from the Indian Runner Duck Association and other outlets.

Colour Breeding in Domestic Waterfowl

Perhaps the biggest impact of the Indian Runner Duck has been on the creation of twentieth century ‘Designer Ducks’. Birds like the Khaki Campbell and the Buff Orpington are the direct result of crossing Indian Runners to other domestic breeds. The egg-laying potential, allied to some remarkable chromotypes, liberated duck breeding in both commercial and exhibition stocks.

The original Asian birds carried some exciting plumage colour mutations. In the language of genetics, they had alternative genes (alleles) of the mallard pattern, namely the recessive dusky variant. There were sex-linked colour dilutions, like the recessive brown and buff variants. Also there was an alternative light phase gene, which is in most Runners, other than the Fawn-and-whites, and further in breeds like the Saxony, Rouen Clair and Silver Appleyard.

  When the black, blue and pied genes (the latter referred to by F M Lancaster as the ‘runner gene’) are also brought into the picture, a veritable palette of colour ‘factors’ is available. Like the Call Ducks, Indian Runners are now more than ever obtainable in a wide range of stable colour forms without crossing to other waterfowl breeds. Care, however, should always be taken with certain colour forms, such as the blue where incomplete dominance in the heterozygotes produces chromotypes like Cumberland Blue, Blue Dusky, Blue Trout, etc.) These only breed a proportion of offspring like the parents.

Footnotes       

¹ Coutts  (1929) ‘The Feathered World’

² Appleyard, Reginald. Ducks  (‘The Feathered World’ 1926)

³ Brown, E. Poultry Breeding and Production  (1929)

⁴ Zollinger. Journal of the Indian Archipelago (1851)

⁵ Donald. The India Runner Duck: its History and Description (c.1890)

⁶ Rudolph. Notes on the History of the Indian Runner (Newsletter of the Indian

   Runner Association, Autumn 2000)

Secretary and General Enquiries: Chris Ashton