The plucky pheasant hitched a ride after becoming trapped in the car after the driver braked in the road. Staff at a garage in the Cotswold helped free the bird
A live pheasant was rescued after spending a full 24 hours trapped inside a car’s radiator grill – and astonishingly emerged completely unscathed.
The bird hitched a ride after the car’s owner spotted it on the road and braked, only to see nothing when she got out. Thinking it had flown off, she carried on driving.
But hours later, a colleague noticed the pheasant wedged in the car’s front grill.
After failing to free it herself, the woman, who has not been named took the vehicle to a local garage in Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds. Staff were left stunned by the unusual passenger.
Despite the bird’s ordeal, it was fortunately “absolutely fine” without a “feather out of place”.
Lucy McDonagh, 44, filmed the rescue as her husband and garage owner James Collett, 59, carefully removed the feathered stowaway. Lucy, of Northleach, Gloucestershire, said: “She [the customer] couldn’t get it out herself and it was hissing at her.
“The staff popped the car on the MOT ramp and slowly dismantled the engine under tray to reach the pheasant. It took about 15 minutes to get to it.
“Somehow, it was absolutely fine – not a feather out of place.
“She’s a very regular customer and, of course, as a garage trading 104 years in the same village there was no charge made to her for the rescue.
“We placed it in a box and then the lady offered to go and release it by Hawkstones Brewery.”
It comes after a chimpanzee caused chaos at a zoo after it escaped from its enclosure. The entire premise had to be put on lockdown after the ape went missing at Indianapolis Zoo in Indiana, US.
But the creature was eventually found and was brought back after being sedated.
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