Make Ilkley Tarn Great Again? Duck off
Ilkley Tarn’s duck population has gotten far too big, says a local conservation group. A dissenting voice claims otherwise …
On Sunday 16 November, a leaflet made its way through the letterboxes of Ilkley. It was a good day for it – dry with very little wind and a modest chill that had replaced the unseasonably mild weather we’d had as of late. It wasn’t your usual junk mail. This was different. It was attention grabbing. It was clear that a lot of thought and budget had gone into it. Someone had something to say.
On one side of the leaflet, with the headline of DON’T FALL FOR IT, there’s an image of an anthropomorphised toad or a frog (maybe an unintentional hybrid of the two). It’s wearing a red plaid shirt, blue dungarees and a red MAKE TARN GREAT AGAIN baseball cap, an imitation of the red hat often worn by Trump and his more ardent supporters.
The creature is looking straight at us with a grumpy expression and menacing red eyes. It’s also, for reasons unknown, holding a frothy pint of beer. At the bottom of the leaflet there’s a call to action – VOTE AGAINST THESE CHANGES – and a link to a website.
On the other side, with the slogan YOUR TARN NEEDS YOU!, is a chipper-looking, anthropomorphised mallard duck (green head, yellow bill, white collar). It doesn’t appear to have wings. Instead, oddly it’s got human arms and human hands. It’s dressed in a creamy sailor’s suit, as well as a sailor’s cap featuring the emblem of an anchor on top of its head and a blue and white striped neckerchief around its neck. It’s in the style of the iconic 1914 Lord Kitchener British army recruitment poster for world war one.
There’s also a circular logo on the top left of the leaflet. The main image is of a pair of ducks – a male and female mallard respectively – floating on what looks like Ilkley Tarn. In the background, four further ducks can be seen flying as the sun sets or rises behind a pool of water. The outer ring has the same website url that features on the other side. The bottom of the logo is partially covered with the words CHOOSE DUCKS in a more bubbly font.
What is this leaflet all about? Why had someone gone to all this trouble? Why were we being asked to choose between waterfowls or amphibians? Inspired, we decided to take a look.
