Friends, it is with profound sadness that I must inform you that Trevor, the world’s loneliest duck, has died. His body was found by the roadside puddle on the small Pacific island of Niue, near Fiji, that he had called his home for a year. Residents believe he was attacked by a stray dog. No one knows exactly how old he was, or whether he is survived by anyone, because as we mentioned, he was very lonely.
Trevor arrived on Niue in January 2018. No one is quite sure how he got there, but as the New York Times reports, some believe he was blown onto the tiny atoll by a strong storm that month. The day after the storm, Rae Finlay, chief executive of the Niue Chamber of Commerce, saw him in a puddle off a main road. Because Niue has no ponds or streams in which a duck could live, residents and local government refilled Trevor’s roadside pond with buckets of water. Named after New Zealand’s parliamentary speaker, Trevor Mallard (who offered his condolences following the duck’s death), Trevor was the only duck on the island, hence his presumed loneliness. Occasionally, he was joined at his puddle by a rooster who would try to steal his oats.
“He captured many hearts and even the rooster, the chicken, and the weka were looking a little forlorn today wandering around near the dry puddle,” Finlay told ABC.
As someone who was so widely beloved — by the rooster, by Finlay, by the over 1,700 fans of his Facebook page, and now, posthumously, by me — could Trevor truly have been so lonely? Who knows. Maybe his newfound celebrity was the most isolating experience of all.
Rest in peace, Trevor. May your heaven be full of ducks with whom you can form deep and meaningful connections.