This lucky duckling now in good hands

A paradise duckling hurled from a moving vehicle has escaped injury, and is now one of a flock of more than 50 ducklings and young ducks being looked after by Bird Rescue Dunedin.

Police were called after the duckling was thrown from the vehicle window near Queens Gardens, in Dunedin, on Sunday afternoon.

A spokeswoman said three males were involved and had been spoken to. No further information was available about the trio.

Bird Rescue Dunedin founder Sue Cook said the SPCA had entrusted the duckling to her, and it was uninjured and in good health.

Sue Cook, of Bird Rescue Dunedin, holds the paradise duckling thrown from a vehicle on Sunday....
Sue Cook, of Bird Rescue Dunedin, holds the paradise duckling thrown from a vehicle on Sunday. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY

She thought it was about five days old, and it was being cared for along with a number of other young ducklings, some of them paradise but the majority mallard.

She tried to keep the ducklings ``as wild as possible'', and released them into the wild at the age of eight or nine weeks, often into the Botanic Gardens.

``They are a lot of fun [to look after] but a lot of mess,'' Miss Cook said.

Police said the matter had been handed over to the SPCA, but an SPCA Dunedin centre staff member said yesterday discussions between the two agencies were ongoing.

Miss Cook said she had been running Bird Rescue for four years, and every year more ducks came in.

Many of them were ducklings whose mothers had been killed in accidents, or who had wandered away from their parents.

A truck driver had recently brought in nine ducklings whose mother had been killed near Balclutha.

SPCA communications manager Jessie Gilchrist did not know how common it was for ducklings to be thrown out of cars, but said the agency did see ``needless cases of cruelty''.

``There have been cases of kittens falling out of cars recorded too, but if the car is moving it can be hard to determine if they are thrown out of the car, or if they've fallen out of the engine after climbing up there to keep warm.''

elena.mcphee@odt.co.nz

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