High calling for mountain hero

A hero of Lantau's mountains has gone to the great pasture where mules go when they die.

Duffi, a 25-year-old female mule, or molly, who helped build Ngong Ping cable car, trotted away on Friday. The news was given out by staff at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, who issued a "heavy heart" obituary on their Facebook page.

Duffi now lies next to companion Dennie, who died in 2019.

"She was put to sleep on Friday morning after a long fight with a serious infection," the obituary revealed.

Saying Duffi led "an eventful life," a Kadoorie Farm spokesman noted she arrived in Hong Kong in 2004 as a working mule on what started as the Tung Chung Cable Car, carrying heavy equipment up the mountain in all weather with five other mules imported from Canada. The work involved building the 5,700-meter gondola ride from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping (460m) and the celebrated Tian Tan Buddha.

Their later years were easier. They joined the Fauna Conservation Department at Kadoorie Farm in 2005 to put smiles on the faces of many kids with easier transport services and to show the way to sustainability.