The Toyota Land Cruiser has an enviable reputation for ruggedness, but in a bizarre tale from Somerset one owner has seen his motor grounded due to an unlikely cause – a family of nesting robins.
Land Cruiser Amazon owner Dave Merchant was completely unaware that a pair of robins had chosen the engine compartment of his car to build a nest. The mother bird had been sitting on a clutch of eggs, with Mr Merchant only discovering them after popping the bonnet of his Land Cruiser to check the oil. Despite travelling hundreds of miles, the eggs successfully produced five chicks which are now well on the way to fledgling.
“The fact that I was driving the Land Cruiser around while the robins were nesting and that the birds hatched successfully shows what a good car this is”, said Mr Merchant, who has owned his Toyota since 2008 and covered over 80,000 miles. “As soon as I saw the chicks I of course stopped driving the car and I won’t use it again until they have flown the nest.”
Just when you thought the incredible story couldn’t get better, when Mr Merchant contacted Toyota he discovered that the manufacturer has previous when it comes to producing mobile birdboxes – last year it was reported in the local press in Victoria, Australia, that birds had been discovered nesting in the engine compartment by the driver of a RAV4.
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