Ten little ducks went out yesterday and found themselves stuck in a West Vancouver pond overflow drain far away.
North Shore resident Heidi Von Pfetten was walking her pooch at the dog beach in Ambleside Park around 5 p.m. Thursday (April 22) when she heard a mother duck go “quack, quack, quack, quack,” and saw her become increasingly distressed when her ducklings didn’t come back.
Von Pfetten said she later followed the mother duck and discovered her ducklings had become trapped in the pond’s drain.
"It was so awful," she said. "She was just going crazy, the mother duck. She even came to the road, looked at me, and went ‘quack, quack, quack,’ and then flew back to where her ducklings were caught.
"She was going around and around in a circle."
Worried for the ducklings, Von Pfetten went to the West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services for help. A crew from the Station 1 fire hall, at 16th Street, were sent to help and were able to successfully rescue all 10 ducklings that had fallen into the deep drain, scooping them out one by one with a shovel.
"It was unbelievable, the efforts of the firemen," Von Pfetten said. "They got them all out safe and back to an excited mother duck."
Thanks to the kind firefighters, when mother duck later went “quack, quack, quack, quack” all 10 little ducks came back, with a video captured by firefighters showing the ducklings reuniting with their mom on the water.
See some cute photos of the mother duck and her ducklings captured before the distressing incident below...
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were busy scooping ducklings from an overflow drain in Ambleside on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Here the mother duck is happily showing off her babies earlier that afternoon, prior to the distressing event. . By Jonathan Buffone
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were busy scooping ducklings from an overflow drain in Ambleside on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Here the mother duck is happily showing off her babies earlier that afternoon, prior to the distressing event. . By Jonathan Buffone
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were busy scooping ducklings from an overflow drain in Ambleside on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Here the mother duck is happily showing off her babies earlier that afternoon, prior to the distressing event. . By Jonathan Buffone
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were busy scooping ducklings from an overflow drain in Ambleside on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Here the mother duck is happily showing off her babies earlier that afternoon, prior to the distressing event. . By Jonathan Buffone
