FORT WALTON BEACH — A 91-year-old man is recovering from injuries he suffered Wednesday when he was an attacked by a Muscovy duck at a local park.
Wilmer Neumann was walking with his grandson at Ferry Park when he noticed a male duck “quacking and carrying on,” he said Friday.
“I thought I was walking past them, but first thing I know I had a duck on my back,” said Neumann, who lives in Fort Walton Beach. “He flew up but on the way back down he got a talon caught on my left calf.
“I’ve had both knees replaced. I don’t walk fast,” he said, adding that the duck may have been frustrated by his pace. “It was his way of retaliating, I guess.”
Muscovy ducks have sharp talons on their webbed feet and can weigh up to 15 pounds.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission does not handle complaints about the birds, which are not a native species.
Dee Thompson, director of the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society, said it’s not in her agency’s job description to deal with ducks, either, but it tries to help when it can.
Watch a video of animal control officers capturing the ducks. >>
The male duck was with a female and they might have been guarding a nearby nest.
“That’s why he was so mean,” PAWS dispatcher Tina Felde said.
Animal Control Officer Terrance Sykes had been to Ferry Park twice since Wednesday’s attack. He arrived with a net and a cage Friday.
Disc golfer Lenny Mosley halted his game to watch Sykes chase the ducks around the park.
“This is more entertaining than my golf game,” said Mosley, who added that the ducks had been aggressive toward him for months. “Every time I come over this way, they come at me.”
Sykes tried repeatedly to capture the ducks before he chased them into a fenced-in playground and shut the gate.
He then called for a second officer to help him.
“No fun chasing these guys out here,” Sykes said as the ducks hissed and bobbed their heads on the other side of the fence. “It’s not like dogs, where you can tell pretty much what they’re going to do.
“It’s not a good situation.”
When the back-up officer arrived, Sykes talked him out of heading into the playground area to grab the birds.
“They’re just ducks,” said Felde’s husband, Tazz, who normally works at the kennel at PAWS.
“They’re not just birds,” Sykes told him. “They’re strong. They’ll mess you up.”
The men finally herded the ducks into a corner against a building, where they each were flattened under a large net and wrangled into cages.
“Nice!” Felde said, giving Sykes a high five while the ducks hissed and bobbed their heads.
Animal control workers were trying to find the birds a new home Friday afternoon. Tina Felde said two people in Crestview have taken Muscovy ducks in the past.
Neumann, who has been to the doctor three times for his injuries, was relieved that the ducks had been captured.
But he did not like the idea of them moving to a new home — even as far away as Crestview — unless they would be confined to a covered enclosure.
Looking back, he kind of regrets not ending the duck attack more decisively when he had the chance.
“I reached down and grabbed him by the neck until he pulled (the talon) out somehow,” Neumann said. ”I should have just held on to his neck.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Wendy Victora at 850-315-4478 or wvictora@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @WendyVnwfdn.