Orange County girl hailed as hero after saving duck shot through head with arrow

An Orange County girl is being hailed as a hero after she took matters into her own hands upon finding a duck with an arrow through its head over the weekend. 

The girl, just 10-years-old, saw the mallard duck while at a park in Costa Mesa, offering up her meal to lure the creature into her care. 

"She gave up her McDonald's pancake breakfast to try to lure it in, which was great. Don't feed wildlife, but in this incident she kept it there so it could be caught and brought into care," said Debbie McGuire, Executive Director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center. "She's a little hero!"

Upon receiving veterinary care, the duck was found to have suffered a shot that nearly went through its trachea. Authorities believe that the arrow was shot from a crossbow. 

"He's very lucky that the dart is out and his pain levels seemed to decrease significantly once the dart was out," said Dr. Elizabeth Wood, a veterinarian at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center. "His breathing went back to normal and he actually went back to self-feeding quite quickly."

Though recovering at a quick pace, the duck is slated for another surgery next week, which should take an hour as surgeons look to remove dead tissue, assess if the esophagus or trachea suffered any damage and close the wound. 

As they investigate the incident, Animal Control officers are working to extract DNA from the arrow itself to see if they can trace it to a possible suspect.