A giant, 59-foot rubber duck made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, was happily floating on the Nanming River in China's Guizhou Province, when it went missing on Wednesday night after days of heavy rain, local media reports say. The duck weighs 1 ton.

This isn't the first time the enormous ducky has faced problems. When the art installation bird arrived in a Taiwanese port in December, it exploded while on display in "unexplained circumstances."

Via the BBC:

The 18 metre (50 foot) inflatable duck suddenly collapsed on Tuesday, only 11 days after it had been put on display in the port at Keelung. Organisers are unsure as to the cause of its demise, but one theory is that it was attacked by eagles.

After a week of heavy rainfall in southwest China, the downtrodden duck (a replacement after the unfortunate exploding incident) took another hit as it dislodged from its 10-ton metal platform and washed away, nowhere to be found.

Yan Jianxin, a coordinator of the duck exhibit on the Nanming River told the Wall Street Journal, "The duck flopped over and was flushed away really quickly by the torrential flood. It disappeared right in front of me in several seconds."

The Wall Street Journal reports that the wild duck hunt has begun as local radio stations urge citizens, "If you live along the river and see an 18-meter tall big yellow duck, please call 5961027." Description: giant, yellow, is a duck.

[Image via AP]