After becoming a popular tourist attraction, a row of painted yellow stone ducks along a biking path in the Yuehmei Community (月眉社區) in Taoyuan County’s Dasi Township (大溪) were decapitated last week, leaving residents baffled as to what prompted such an act of destruction.
The ducks were made by community residents in October, using two stones — a larger one as the body and a smaller one as head glued together with epoxy — and painted yellow with eyes and a beak, the residents said.
One resident, surnamed Huang (黃), said that the ducks were the result of many hours of residents working together.
Photo: Wang Ying-chieh, Taipei Times
As the stones were glued together with epoxy, they would not have been easily removed, Huang added.
The heads were deliberately removed, Huang said.
One of the community’s development committee members said it was difficult to ascertain who had vandalized the work because traffic volume along the path was considerable, and local residents and tourists use the path.
Photo: Wang Ying-chieh, Taipei Times
People living near the trail said that they had not noticed anything strange during the day and suspected that the culprit, or culprits, must have acted during the night, adding that they could not think of any reason why anyone would want to destroy the ducks.
Residents said that they would not be disheartened by vandals and plan to remake the row of painted ducks.
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