<div><div>Where did Indian Runner ducks come from? from the Dutch East Indies, not India, says <strong>CHRIS ASHTON</strong></div></div>

- Chris Ashton

These famous upright ducks have been variously known as Penguin ducks, Indian Runners, Loopeenden (Netherlands) and Laufenten (Germany). They were developed for centuries in Indonesia as ‘walking ducks’. They were imported to the UK in the 1830s and enjoyed tremendous popularity as the ‘India Runner’ at the very end of the nineteenth century. Apparently ‘lost’ on the continent, despite evidence of their early import by the Dutch, the Runner is now one of the most popular domestic ducks breeds in Germany.

This South East Asian duck breed also revolutionised the UK duck egg industry, helping to produce all the light duck breeds recognised today, such as the Orpington and Campbell. The breed itself is now standardised in fourteen colour varieties. That’s rather a long way from its wild mallard ancestor, and the dusky mallard of the Far East.

Where did the UK birds come from?

The introduction of the Runner into the UK was recorded at the London Zoo in 1835. It was described by Harrison Weir (1902) as the ‘Penguin Duck’ in the colour known today as ‘Fawn’:

. . . these were a light and dark fawn colour, the ordinary blue bars on the wing being the dull slate tint. The ducklings were extremely odd-looking little things and frequently fell in their attempt to walk fast or run.

The breed became popular in Cumbria. J. Donald of Wigton produced an undated pamphlet, circa 1890, ‘The India Runner Duck: its History and Description’

This variety of duck has b

This story is from the Nov - Dec 2017 edition of Practical Poultry.

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