Ducklings Fall Through City Grate, Sweet Moment Rescuers Reunite Them with Mama Recorded
For a family of Black-bellied whistling ducklings in Pearland, Texas, 13 is their lucky number. After falling through a city grate, all 13 ducklings were fortunate to emerge uninjured.
Josephine Pena was outside Pena’s Donut Heaven & Grill on May 5 when she noticed the adorable duck family.
Mom, Dad, and a whole brood of chicks walked together along a dirt walkway, cute fluffy adorableness that Pena couldn’t help but start to film.
But the cute family outing suddenly took a frightening turn for the worse. The tiny ducklings managed to step off the dirt walkway and onto the city street, separated from their parents.
The bright red curb was too high for the ducklings to climb up, so they continued walking down the street.
The brood headed straight for a city grate, and their tiny bodies were so small that they slipped right down the drain.
Pena can be heard gasping in disbelief, horrified as every last duckling slipped through the grate. She immediately sought help.
“We called everybody we could think of related with wildlife birds,” Pena said. “Couldn’t find any help.”
So, Pena had to wing it. She rounded up some local help — just regular people with compassionate hearts.
One unidentified man dropped down the drain and began rounding up the ducklings.
Slowly but surely, he lifted each duck sibling out of the drain where they were placed in a cardboard box for safekeeping.
It took four hours before each and every duckling was pulled out of the drain. Pena and company were satisfied with a job well done and turned their efforts to the next task: reunification.
“We rescued 13 duckies today,” Pena said happily. By this time, mom and dad duck were not in sight, so Pena took them to a nearby lake.
Pena’s counterpart opened the cardboard box and the fluffy crew waddled out.
In a very happy ending, mom and dad duck showed up and it was only a matter of moments before the family swam away, reunited at last.
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