On Wednesday, Twitter started to panic: The hot mandarin Duck in Central Park (not the one in Canada), who is also the most eligible bachelor in New York City, was missing. By Thursday afternoon, though, their fears were assuaged: The hot duck is okay. He was just off doing whatever it is ducks do when they’re not being mobbed by adoring fans.
Since the Hot Duck first arrived in New York City in early October, he’s become a local celebrity. Thousands of people have come to Central Park to take his photo and revel in his beauty — until yesterday, that is, when bird-watchers couldn’t find him at any of his usual haunts.
“He was not reported yesterday, and we checked the likely spots late day,” tweeted the Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter account on Tuesday. “If you see him, let us know! He likely still is in Central Park, but he has been known to fly to the Hudson River 79th-Street Boat Basin.”
Obviously, people were freaking out. Conclusions were jumped to. One Twitter user guessed that “some idiot is probably keeping it in their bathtub because it’s 2018 and we are not allowed to have anything nice.”
The Parks Department did its best to keep people calm amid the chaos: “We don’t know his exact location at this time,” the Parks Department said in a statement to CBS Local. “Almost all ducks migrate seasonally. While we’re happy to have had him visit our parks, it’s important to remember that at some point he may leave New York for warmer temperatures.”
On Thursday morning, all of New York City a sigh of relief. The hot duck, finally, came home to us.
“HE’S BACK!” The Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter announced. “The MANDARIN DUCK has returned to the Central Park Pond, off 60th and Fifth, on the east shore.”
Bless the deck for returning to us, and may he never make us panic over his disappearance again.
