The giant rubber duck cruised into Hong Kong harbour on 2 May 2013 to be enjoyed by all who saw it as a symbol of happiness, has been deflated. The 16,5m sculpture has received a lot of attention and was set to be on display until 9 June 2013, until this happened.

Special announcement: attention, duck fans! The rubber duck needs some rest, and to undergo a quick body check. The rubber duck will resume its ‘duck’ shape in no time.

Strangely enough, some bloggers didn’t believe the announcement and started speculating on more realistic reaons why the duck had been deflated. A user named Huxiang Mountain Person on Sino Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, proposed 10 likely explanations. These are a few of them:

Avian flu was too strong.

Asia’s water quality was too rough.

It worked overtime for seven days in a row and suddenly died.

The duck has found a warm place in the hearts of many of Hong Kong’s residents, who were saddened by the ducks deflation. Mirinna Chan said:

The sky looks like it is crying for me – I took time off from work just to see the duck, now it is just a blob.

It’s really our childhood dream,  because when we bathed as children, we would have one or two of the rubber ducks next to us.

It seems all the attention has proven to be a little too much for the duck.

[Source: The Guardian]