BEIJING Thousands of ducks at a farm in northeast China refused all food and drink after staff separated the males from the females, official media reported Tuesday. The Zhenghe duck farm in Heilongjiang province used to keep its 10,000 residents in mixed-sex pens. "But when workers recently moved the drakes to other places for greater efficiency, the ducks went on a hunger strike the very same day," the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The pining females started eating and drinking as soon as they were reunited with the drakes the next day, the paper said. (AFP)