Holy Hereford! Bull survives being swept 49 miles down a river and over a 33-foot waterfall after a New Zealand flood

The bull was built Hereford tough. (Photo provided to Stuff.com)

"A young bull that was swept into a surging river during flooding on New Zealand’s West Coast has miraculously survived the ordeal, turning up unharmed a week later, 80 kilometres (49 miles) downstream, snuffling about in a blackberry bush," Eva Corlett reports for The Guardian.

Owner Tony Peacock said the 18-month-old bull and two others were swept away—along with hundreds more in the surrounding area—after the biggest rainfall he'd ever seen on his farm, Corlett reports. He assumed his bulls were gone for good, but a farmer in the oceanfront town of Westport called him a week later after spying a bull with an unfamiliar ear tag in the brush.

"It’s a fairly long trip and amazing he survived," Peacock told Corlett. "I was quite happy when I got the call he was alive. I think he will get legend status now and be put in a paddock to retire with some cows."