One of the greatest love anyone can experience that of a mother’s love and affection. It is said that if a child is in danger, a mother will bring heaven and hell together to save them. This is not just the case for human mothers and children but also applies to the animal kingdom. Animals protect their young ones, and animals go out of their natural abilities to save their little ones as much as possible. One such story is the incident of this mother duck and her terrified little ducklings when they were caught in a storm and were unable to protect themselves.
Because of a storm, this mother duck was unable to protect her babies. They were too young to take care of themselves and find shelter like other creatures were trying to. And during that instance, a flood came and carried the babies away, leaving the poor mother in desperation with whoever she could hide under her wings. She then found the babies trapped in a storm drain. But they were stuck there, and she was unable to take them out on her own. All she had were her beak, wings, and a mother’s desperation to save her children. What could the poor mother duck do?
The Mother Duck Turned Into Humans
The only thing that she could do was to turn desperately to humans. She kept crying and caused a commotion around the storm drain, trying to get the attention of the people passing by. Many people were unable to understand what had rattled the duck so much. But the mother duck did not give up. She continued to cry out, seeking help, hoping that at least one person would see her plight and offer to rescue her babies. As a mother, she probably also knew how terrified and in pain her little children would be stuck in a storm drain. She was going to do everything she could to save them. So she continued to quack for at least one human to notice her.
Someone Does See Her
One passerby did notice that a duck was continuously quacking. They went down to investigate, and the duck remained there making noise. Then they realized that there was chirping from under the storm drain and could see glimpses of tiny ducklings stuck there. The passerby understood the plight of the mother duck and immediately called for help. They called the Phoenix Fire Department to come and rescue the baby ducklings from the storm drain.
The Rescue Mission
The Phoenix Fire Department came immediately. They used crowbars to try to open the grates and worked at it for a solid ten minutes. After finally removing the grates, they used torches and long sticks to ensure there were no rattlesnakes or snakes around the baby ducklings. During the operation, the mother duck kept circling them, watching them perform the rescue for her babies. The rescue team then issued a ladder into the drain. Two members went into it and carefully extracted the little ducklings from the storm drain. The little ones kept chirping as the team scooped them up throughout the operation. Nine babies in total were rescued and put safely in a box.
Returning The Ducklings
The rescue team was very careful in handling the baby ducklings to avoid injuring them. They professionally removed the ladder and their equipment and fixed the grates back in place. They took the box to the neighbor’s backyard, where the mother duck was waiting at a distance. And then slowly released the ducklings. They gently tapped the box at the back to coax the duckling to leave. The little ones hurriedly ran to their mother. The mother made quacking noises in gratitude to the rescue team and was absolutely delighted to have found her children again.
The mother duck’s love for her baby ducklings led her to have to rely on human goodwill for their rescue, and thankfully, human goodwill won in the end. The Phoenix Fire Department handled the situation very professionally by ensuring that the mother duck did not get too agitated and carefully returned the rescued ducklings to their mama. This is also a win for humanity for taking a pause and helping nature with our vast skills and abilities. We really have to commend the Phoenix Fire Department for their good job!
