Two Gainesville residents bound for Hawaii are turning to social media to find a home for their 2-and-a-half-year-old duck named McIntosh.
On April 12, Julie Zill and her boyfriend, Felipe Carvalho, posted a YouTube video of their downy friend.
The video shows McIntosh flying on command, swimming in a backyard pool, eating table food and sleeping with his beak resting on Carvalho’s hand.
Within three days, the video had more than 175,000 views. As of press time, it had been watched almost 373,000 times.
Zill, a 25-year-old UF alumna, said she and Carvalho, 31, are trying to adopt out the duck because of necessity: She will attend graduate school at the University of Hawaii while Carvalho prepares for a job on the island. In anticipation of their summer move, the couple used the Internet, which included posting the video on Facebook and Reddit, to showcase McIntosh’s personality.
“We raised him since he had first hatched, so we’ve always been very attached to him,” said Zill, who brought the duck home from a farm in Webster, Fla., as a two-hour-old chick.
Carvalho said McIntosh’s background makes him more adoptable. Most ducks don’t have the familiarity with humans McIntosh does, he said.
“He loves interacting with humans,” he said.
Hawaii has strict regulations that would prevent McIntosh from travelling with the couple, Zill said.
The couple said they have received a significant amount of interest from Gainesville-area residents about adopting Mcintosh, but they have not chosen a family for him yet.
“We want to review many options,” Zill said. “The search is by no means closed.”
Contact Kelcee Griffis at kgriffis@alligator.org.
McIntosh, a 2-and-a-half-year-old duck, is being put up for adoption by UF alumna Julie Zill and her boyfriend, Felipe Carvalho. His adoption video can be found on Facebook and Reddit.
