Duck Family Rescued From Huge Water Tank After 4 Days

Story By: Ernest Bio BogoreSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

Kindhearted volunteers have saved a duck and its 10 fluffy duckling which were trapped in a huge concrete water tank for four days.

The ducks were trapped in the tank on 18th April in the city of Rennes in the north-western French region of Brittany and they were finally rescued on the 21st.

Local resident Nicolas Vermet said: “It is a buffer basin with a capacity of 1,700 cubic meters of water which will be used for the sewage system.”

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The tank, which is still under construction, is not yet fully filled and only has a water depth of 1.3 metres at the moment, according to local media.

An unnamed resident said: “The duck came to lay its eggs in my garden. They were born on Easter Sunday.

“When they started to grow, they left and one of them must have fallen into the tank and the others followed. They never left each other.”

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According to reports, the mother duck was able to fly to the ledges, but she always rejoined her ducklings which could not get out.

Geraldine Bignon and Helene Demay, two volunteers from the NGO ‘Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO)’ who came to the rescue the birds, said: “The duck is getting exhausted, it has no more energy.

“It goes up and down without ever taking its eyes off its offspring. Ducks are very much like a family.”

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Louis Haudebert, co-president of the neighbourhood committee, said: “They are not going to die of thirst, that’s for sure, but of hunger.”

Local media said that residents threw the birds food while organising their rescue.

A poster by the tank read: “No bread because it might swell their stomachs.”

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Haudebert told local media that the birds were rescued with the use of a large landing net attached to a long handle.

He reportedly wore waders to enter the tank with Vermet and several OPL volunteers.

The ducks have since been returned to their natural habitat and are said to be doing well.

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