The RSPCA were called out to help the ducklings after they were seen falling down the drain while following their mother in Barton Under Needwood, Staffordshire.
Animal collection officer Catherine Strawford was first on the scene and was able to see three ducklings in the drain, but soon realised more had fallen deeper into the pipe below.
She called Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service for assistance who used crowbars to pull up the manhole cover and she was able to lift three ducklings out of the storm drain.But she was unable to reach the ducklings trapped deeper in the pipe, so firefighters lifted up a manhole cover further along the road.
Strawford was able to coax two of the remaining ducklings from the pipe by playing sounds of a mother duck from a YouTube video.
However, the final two ducklings were still hiding and so firefighters gently hosed water down the pipe, carefully pushing the remaining ducklings to an open manhole where they were picked up by a waiting firefighter.
“I am so grateful to Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service for coming to assist,” says Strawford. “It was a great team effort and I am so glad the young birds are now all safe.”
All seven of the ducklings were taken to the RSPCA’s Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre in Cheshire where they will be reared and once they are strong enough will be released back into the wild.
Strawford adds, “I went to see if I could find the mother duck but there was no sign of her anywhere. The passerby said she did stay around for about half an hour but she probably left as she may have had other young to attend to.”