Fire crews in New Zealand perform Christmas Day ‘mass rescue’ of ducklings

WHILE civilians were unwrapping their Christmas presents, big-hearted fire fighters were busy saving ducklings.

Mother duck spotted with 3 ducklings in Heathmont . A magpie tried to attack her but the mother duck thwarted the attack and was able to protect her ducklings and continue on her way. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

A TROUPE of ducklings in New Zealand has narrowly escaped being washed down the drain with the soap suds from the big Christmas Day clear up.

While families celebrated on Christmas Day morning, eight ducklings were fighting for their lives in Christchurch, reports Stuff.co.nz.

“A young lady has been out for an early morning walk and she came across a mummy duck whose ducklings had gone down a drain, all eight of them,” a New Zealand Fire Service spokesman said.

“So she ran home and rang around trying to find somebody to come rescue them and she couldn’t find anybody so she rung the fire service, so we obliged and went and got the ducklings out.”

A crew from St Albans Fire Station received the call and dutifully went out for the Christmas rescue mission this morning.

Peter McArdle, from the fire service, said the “mass rescue” as it was called, wasn’t too complex.

“It was just a case of lifting the grating and reaching down and getting them out.

“We put one of the guys down and we held onto him so he wouldn’t fall into it and basically that’s it.”

In October, a dozen ducklings were rescued in Adelaide after becoming wedged in a pipe. They apparently fell into a rooftop drain in the city and had fire crews and the RSPCA to thank for their freedom after an hour-long hour effort to extricate them.

Another day, another duckling rescue. Picture: Sam Wundke.

Lifting a grate to get to the birds, the fire crews tried using a thermal imaging camera before a more low-tech rescue.

“Crews sawed through a drain pipe to find them and someone from the RSPCA had to entice them out. Once out, they filled a helmet,” a fire service spokesman said.

An RSPCA spokeswoman said the ducklings were in the care of Fauna Rescue and would later be returned to the wild.