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Moeliker's father worked for forty years as a technical illustrator for the (subsequently superseded) Dutch post office.[4] Kees himself was provided with education at the Pieter Caland School in Rotterdam.[5] During this time he used to wander across the nature reserves in the Rotterdam area.[5] On one of his walks, in 1973, he made the first ever recorded observation in the area of an Egyptian Nile goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus).[5]
Before he joined the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Moeliker worked as an assistant-butcher, an English teacher in Istanbul, a nature guide in Costa Rica and a biology teacher at several high schools.[3] He joined the museum, initially as an educational assistant, in 1989. From 1999 to 2015 he was the museum's curator and head of communications. Since 1 December 2015 he has been the museum's director.
Amongst his work for the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Moeliker preserved the Domino Day 2005 sparrow, a house sparrow that was shot and killed by a hunter after it knocked down a large domino display in Leeuwarden. The bird was stuffed and is now mounted on a box of dominos.[11][12]
Kees Moeliker officiating at "his" museum's sixteenth Dead Duck Day (2012)[13][14]
Moeliker has written two books: De eendenman (which translates to The Duck Guy) in 2009[15] and De Bilnaad van de Teek, which translates to The Butt Crack of the Tick, in 2012.[16] The latter was voted "best science book of the year" by the newspaper de Volkskrant that year.[17]
He was nominated in 2013 for the Edgar Doncker Prize in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Rotterdam Natural History Museum and to conservation more generally.[2][20]
After Moeliker won his Ig Nobel Prize, he earned the nickname of "The Duck Guy". He appears annually at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts, and is a regular performer on the Ig Nobel Prize's tours of the United Kingdom.[3] On one tour, on 11 March 2014, a mini-opera based on his study entitled The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera was premiered at Imperial College London. It was composed by Daniel Gillingwater, with Moeliker performing a duck call.[21] A Dead Duck Day is held on 5 June every year, "to commemorate the first anniversary of the sudden and dramatic death (on 5 June 1995) of the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) that entered the scientific literature as the first victim of homosexual necrophilia in this species."[13][14]
On 6 October 2014, he made a guest appearance on BBC Radio 4 comedy The Museum of Curiosity and donated a single pubic louse to the museum.[12] During the programme the presenter John Lloyd observed that Kees Moeliker did not have an English-language Wikipedia page but only a Dutch-language one. Lloyd went on to state: "We're going to make one about you for the English Wikipedia". Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, who was also a guest on the programme, replied that that was unnecessary because Wikipedians listen to the show and he predicted that an English-language page for Kees Moeliker would be created before the airing of the programme had finished. Approximately 8 minutes later, and 7 minutes before the programme finished being aired, the first version of this page had been submitted.[12]
^Heij, C.J. (1985), Comparative ecology of the house sparrow Passer domesticus in rural, suburban and urban situations. Proefschrift Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Alblasserdam: Kanters
^Moeliker, C. W.; Heij, C. J. (30 November 1995). "The rediscovery of Monarcha boanensis"(PDF). Deinsea, Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
^Moeliker, Kees (January 2009). De eendenman: over homoseksuele necrofilie en ander opmerkelijk diergedrag [The Duck Guy]. Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam. ISBN978-90-468-0479-7. OCLC309067377.
^Moeliker, Kees (October 2012). De bilnaad van de teek: beesten door de bril van een bevlogen bioloog [The Butt Crack of the Tick]. Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam. ISBN978-90-468-1384-3. OCLC812548847.