Is a Duck Army Coming for Pakistan’s Locusts? Not So Fast
Claims that China is sending a locust-fighting army of 100,000 ducks to Pakistan, where the insects have been devastating local crops for the past year, aren’t what they’ve been quacked up to be, reports the Associated Press.
China Agricultural University professor Zhang Long, who is part of the country’s official delegation addressing the situation in Pakistan, told reporters on Thursday that no Chinese government program dedicated to using waterfowl to fight the pests exists, according to BBC News. He deemed the ducks’ deployment an “exploratory” method, adding, “Ducks rely on water, but in Pakistan’s desert areas, the temperature is very high.”
The rumors began with a Ningbo Evening News report quoting researcher Lu Lizhi of the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who implied that the bug-munching birds could be used as “biological weapons.” A short video on China Global Television Network’s Twitter account seemed to back his claim. The story quickly triggered a social media storm, generating more than 500 million views on China’s Weibo platform in a matter of hours.
Whether a plan was ever in place to test Lu’s theory remains unclear. Per the AP, the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences reported that it “was looking into the matter.” Lu seemed to imply to reporters at the Ningbo Evening News that he was planning to complete a trial in China’s western Xinjiang region in the coming months. ...