A lone duck named Trevor that lived on the tiny Pacific island nation of Niue has died, officials said on Sunday, sparking an outpouring of grief from as far away as New Zealand.
The mallard found fame last year after a visiting journalist from New Zealand discovered that his makeshift home, near a puddle, was used for directions.
However, his 15 seconds of fame were tragically cut short when he was “seen dead in the bush after being attacked by dogs,” a Facebook page dedicated to Trevor said over the weekend.
Niue Chamber of Commerce chief executive Rae Findlay said it was a “sad time for Niue.”
“He captivated the locals, of which there are only 1,600 in Niue, and the 9,000 visitors to Niue each year,” Findlay told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) on Sunday. “He will definitely be missed, he captured many hearts and even the rooster, the chicken and the weka were looking a little forlorn today wandering around the near-dry puddle.”
Niue, one of the world’s biggest coral islands, is about 2,400km northeast of New Zealand. It does not have natural ponds or wetlands, so when Trevor turned up a year ago, he was believed to have blown in from New Zealand with a storm.
He quickly settled down in a large puddle near a road that the Niue fire service later topped up with water, the ABC reported.
He became so famous locally that when New Zealand Herald deputy political editor Claire Trevett visited Niue, she found he had been incorporated into street directions.
“Someone said, ‘Turn right past the duck’ and then the whole story came out, the only duck on Niue,” she told the ABC.
Trevor was later dubbed the “world’s loneliest duck.”
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