Animal

Bull survived being swept 80 km into a river, over a waterfall, and almost out to sea | New Zealand


A young gaur caught in a rising river during flooding on New Zealand’s West Coast miraculously survived the ordeal, returning to normal a week later, 80 kilometers (49 miles) away. ) downstream, huddled in a blackberry bush.

Deer and cattle breeder Tony Peacock said the 18-month-old bull was grazing with 37 others in a pasture in the Shenandoah area above the Maruia River, on February 10, when torrential rain began head falls.

“That’s the highest I’ve ever seen on my farm. They forecast 60mm and I forecast 160mm more than the rain gauge the next morning,” said Peacock.

He was unprepared for such rainfall, and while saving some people from the rising water, the boy Hereford and two others were swept away.

A week later, Peacock received an unexpected phone call from the agricultural and stock tracking company Ospri. “They said a farmer in Westport had one of my bulls and gave it to me [ear tag] numbers.

“I called him and he said he was walking his cows in the morning when he heard a rustle in the raspberries and a bull in Hereford poked his head out.”

The farmer told Peacock that the bull appeared to need some “rest and relaxation”.

Peacock believes the young gaur has survived an epic ride – being swept into the Maruia River, past the 10m-high Maruia Falls, through its confluence with the Buller River, under the O’Sullivan Bridge and a long journey around shrinking over the rocks above and below the Buller River and, finally, avoiding being swept out to sea.

“It was quite a long ride and the great thing is that he survived. I was quite happy when I got the call that he was still alive. I think he’ll get legendary status now and be put on a lawn to retire with some cows. ”

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He is currently waiting to put the animal on the truck back home. “Given the amount of attention paid to him,” says Peacock, the bull will have to have a special welcome party at home – most likely, a nice lawn full of grass. Pressure is also mounting on naming his new celebrity, but what exactly that is, “is still under discussion.”

Fame can also lead to a blind date for the young player. “I got a guy calling me today who wanted to send him a young heifer to try and get some good herds,” says Peacock.

The gaur is not the only ungulate that attracts attention when it comes to deep water. In 2019, three cows was washed off an island in a fierce storm Hurricane Dorian and lies on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, after swimming four miles (6.4 km) in the storm.

The West Coast of New Zealand is prone to flooding. In 2021, 500 homes will be flooded, of which 100 are considered uninhabitable. Buller County Council estimates the two contiguous floods this month have caused between $21.5 and $43 million in damage.

Peacock’s neighbor lost 70 dairy cows in the flood, and another neighbor lost 12 dairy cows. He said he was “counting his lucky stars”, he ended up losing only two, adding that the community spent hours pulling dead cattle from the raspberries. “It was pretty heartbreaking for everyone involved.”



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