Moments After These Ducklings’ Mom Was Killed By A Car, One Man Stepped Up To Try And Rescue Them
When seven tiny ducklings were left orphaned on a busy road,
one guy took it upon himself to bring them home. After researching how to raise them online,
the selfless rescuer became the greatest surrogate mom they could have wished for.
It all began when a Reddit user name Jacob came across a dead duck while he was out driving in
his car one day. As her body lay there lifeless, her orphaned ducklings scurried around her on the
busy round in a desperate bid to wake her up. It appeared the mother duck had been run over
by a car. So, unable to live with himself if her tiny babies met the same fate,
Jacob did a U-turn in order to shoo them off the road and away from danger.
Then, with their feathers slightly ruffled by all the commotion,
the ducklings gathered by a closed garage door where they huddled together tightly for warmth.
Unable to leave them, Jacob placed them in a cardboard box and told his wife
he was bringing seven little ducklings home. By the time the entourage got back to the house,
Jacob’s wife and children had already prepared a temporary home for their new lodgers. They placed
a towel at the bottom of a plastic bin and helped the baby ducks get settled into their new abode.
However, the family soon discovered that ducklings can jump pretty high, so to keep
their new brood from escaping they placed tennis rackets over the top of the bin. In the meantime,
the duck squad got to work building a state-of-the-art, heated duck hotel.
Jacob then laid out some food and water for the ducklings, who quickly made themselves at home.
After that, the he crossed his fingers in the hope that the ducks would survive the night.
Thankfully, though, the quacking guests were quite comfortable
and when everyone awoke the following day it was time for the birds to find a more permanent home.
Using the Internet, the family found a local wildlife rehab organization that agreed to take
the ducklings in until they could be released back into the wild. All that was left to do
was to hand the little fluff balls over ¬– but of course not until they were all given names.
The family christened the ducks: Buddy, Ducky Mo-Mo, Scrooge McDuck, Sarah, Flower, Fluffy
and Grapes. Then everyone jumped into the family van to take the ducks on to their next adventure.
Although the journey took only 20 minutes, Jacob admitted it was a tough drive. “I have to say,
there were a lot of tears among my girls on the trip. No one wanted to say goodbye,”
he wrote on Reddit. “But we agreed it was better to have been able to help the ducks
and then say goodbye than to have never met them in the first place.”
So, after helping to drop off the seven babies at the wildlife rehab,
Jacob’s eight-year-old daughter declared her eagerness to work with animals in the
future. And in light of the events, the post encouraged others to help animals as well.
“I’d say helping baby ducks is a lot like helping people,
he wrote. “They don’t come with manuals, they may run away when you try to help them, and they’ll
probably cost you time and money. But you don’t have to do everything right. Just do something.”
Thankfully, the Jacob isn’t alone in having a desire to help animals.
In Titirangi, New Zealand, a team of volunteer firefighters went above and beyond their call of
duty to rescue eight ducklings. When the heroes arrived on the scene, they found a distraught
mother duck crying next to a drain cover. Her babies had fallen down the gaps in the
drain cover and were squeaking from the bottom of the ditch. Wasting no time,
one of the firefighters dangled head-first into the hole while another one held onto his legs.
In amazing footage of the rescue, the nervous mom can be heard quacking loudly as the firemen
try to reach her little ones. At one point, the duck charges angrily at one of the rescuers,
not knowing they are there to help. Despite the harassment, the fire crew
carefully retrieved the adorable ducklings and kept them grouped in a traffic cone for safety.
The team worked tirelessly until they had rescued all eight ducklings.
After a quick double-check down the drain, the rescuers were satisfied that they’d found
all of the duck’s missing brood. The team then walked to a nearby park to reunite the family.
Once in the park, the firemen began to release the ducklings from the traffic
cone one-by-one. The mother duck seemed to confirm each of her darling babies
was accounted for and then loudly quacked again. “One happy mum,” remarks one firefighter
as he films the jubilant reunion. “I think she’s telling them off,” he later adds, before letting
out a little giggle. And with that the mother and her ducklings waddle off into the sunset together.
It seems both sets of lucky ducks captured the public’s heart. Indeed,
the firefighters’ rescue video received over 200,000 views within 24 hours of going online,
while Jacob’s Reddit feed obtained hundreds of comments. Both stories go to show that by
taking a little time and effort, we can really make a difference in our fellow animals’ lives.