What to Know
- Park rangers are searching for a duck in distress in Central Park
- The duck is a common merganser and, if one looks closely at the photos Brad Kane, a bird aficionado and photographer, one can see a plastic ring stuck around its head and beak.
- Park rangers and wildlife conservancy scientists are concerned about the health of the duck. The plastic rink likely will impact its ability to eat since the duck dives underwater for food
Park rangers are searching for a duck in distress in Central Park.
"We’ve been out with binoculars -- rangers all over Central Park and Morningside Park, in bodies of water -- and we haven’t been able to find her," Urban Park Ranger Jill Lim said.
The duck is a common merganser and, if one looks closely at the photos Brad Kane, a bird aficionado and photographer, one can see a plastic ring -- similar to the kind you'll find around a bottle of milk -- stuck around its beak, and possibly its head as well.
"I’ve never seen one before, so I wanted to go check it out, and saw that it may have something stuck in its mouth," Kane said.
Kane snapped the photos over the weekend, just north of Bow Bridge in Central Park.
"It was great to see, but also distressing -- no one likes to see an animal suffer and it was clearly impacted by this plastic ring that was wrapped around its head and mouth," Kane said.
News
Park rangers and wildlife conservancy scientists are concerned about the health of the duck. The plastic rink likely will impact its ability to eat since the duck dives underwater for food.
"The last picture that I saw, it didn’t look good. But we never know, we have seen animals make amazing recoveries because they do wanna survive," Jessica Zafonti, a wildlife rehabilitator, said.
Urban Park Rangers tell News 4 that the duck is still able to fly and swim, but it is yet to be found. The immediate goal is to rescue the duck, remove the plastic from its beak and treat the bird for any injuries.
"the report is that this bird is flighted which will make it difficult to catch and she is a diving duck to find her food which poses another challenge," Lim said.
As the search for the duck continues, park rangers are asking New Yorkers to contact them if they see the bird.
"At least in Central Park you have a lot of eyes that are trying to look for it, and could help the rescue, but once it leaves the park, who knows where it is," Kane said.
