The police are looking for a thug, or a group of thugs, armed with a crossbow, who shot a duck with an arrow that got stuck in the animal’s head.
The incident occurred in Pilsen, Czech Republic, where a duck swimming on the Radbuza river got shot through its neck and head with an arrow launched from a crossbow presumably wielded by a group of vandals or poachers.
Despite all the odds, the mallard survived the heartbreaking attack and had been on the run for three weeks until rescuers finally managed to capture it and remove the arrow from its head.
“The first time we tried to catch him was in April. But it was in vain. We tried many times but he always flew away, and he recognized us. He couldn’t be caught,” Karel Makon of the animal rescue service explained.
“On Monday we succeeded by taking advantage of the fact that the duck was molting, so he wouldn’t be able to fly until new feathers grew.
“This time I was standing on the shore with a landing net on a long pole. Hanka and Radek distracted him in their kayaks.”
After finally capturing the duck, the rescuers took the animal to a veterinarian who examined the bird and ran an X-ray before removing the arrow stuck in its head.
Miraculously, the duck survived the ordeal without major complications and was later released back into the wild.
As Makon added, the mallard was likely a victim of vandalism or poaching, but the authorities lack evidence that would lead them to identify the culprit(s). The police are still looking for the attacker(s) as of this writing.
Replaced!