A Golden Bay woman had an unnerving experience when she went to feed her pet ducks on Friday morning.
One of her Muscovy ducks, aptly named Dyson, somehow managed to suck an eel up his nose and was struggling to remove the intruder.
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"I thought it was a worm at first, but then I had a closer look and saw it was an eel," Rebecca Hayter told Newshub.
"So I called him, and he came 'cause he knew I had food."
She says she tried to remove the eel, but it wouldn't budge. So she did what any reasonable person would do, and turned to Google for help.
"I searched 'how to remove an eel from a ducks nostril' but there were no answers - although there were several stories about eels up seals noses," she said.
No more enlightened than when she started, Hayter headed back to the orchard to rescue Dyson.
"I had a really hard time catching him again, but I could tell he was uncomfortable."
"He was trying to feed from the bucket I had, and he would shake his head to get the eel out and it would just wrap itself round his bill," Hayter told Newshub.
"Eventually I managed to get him, but he's a big boy and they actually have claws, so I had to sort of sit on him and tell him I was trying to help," she said.
After a 20 minute battle, Dyson the duck seemed to understand what was happening, and decided it was in his best interest.
"All of a sudden, he just seemed to get it. And he sat still and just let me do it. But I had to pull really, really hard to get it out."
Hayter says the eel wasn't a tiny one either.
"It was probably about 20 centimetres long."
Although the eel didn't survive his nasal escapade, Dyson the duck is recovering well.
Newshub.
