Ducks in England get their own walking lanes so humans don't ruffle their feathers

Make way for ducklings. Literally.

The waterside walkways of England and Wales get tons of foot traffic as it is, but now these thoroughfares are being expanded to include another species of bipedal nature enthusiasts: ducks!

The Canal & River Trust, which preserves over 2,000 miles of waterways throughout England and Wales, has created lanes exclusively for waterfowl in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, City Metric reports.

This temporary initiative is part of the Trust’s “Share the Space, Drop your Pace” campaign, which encourages awareness among people -- and now, animals -- using the narrow pathways.

The duck lanes are like the shoulder of a motorway, sectioned off by a thin white line that parallels the main route. Quartz reported that in London, the lanes were painted by Dick Vincent, a towpath ranger for the Canal & River Trust. “It just wouldn’t be possible to paint lanes on the towpath for all our different visitors so we thought the ducks could have one instead,” Claire Risino, campaigns manager at the Trust, told Quartz.

Stamped with the hashtag #sharethespace and a painted silhouette of a duck, the lanes allow waddlers and walkers alike to happily coexist. No quacks about it.