Duck hit by car survives next 24 hours stuck in grille

Wellington (dpa) – A New Zealand duck survived being hit by a car going at nearly 100 kilometres an hour and then being stuck in the vehicle’s grille for 24 hours, news reports said on Friday.
Driver Phillip Johnson, of Wellington, thought he had avoided two ducks as they waddled onto the national highway in front of him north of the capital on Wednesday.
He saw one walk away in his rear vision mirror and thought its mate had flown off. But he found it the next day, alive and unflappable, stuck into the grille, having lost just a few feathers.
“It was just sitting there looking at me the way ducks do,” he told Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper.
“It was quite curious. It looked like the grille had bent back and it had gone straight in.”
He drove to local vet Allan Probert who told the TV3 channel, “As she hit the grille, the grille moved and as she went through it snapped back down and that’s why the wing was trapped in there.”
A nearby car mechanic freed the duck and Probert said that apart from a bruised wing and slight limp she was no worse for her accident. She’ll be released when she is fully recovered.
Author: David Barber