Police officers and firefighters teamed up to rescue almost a dozen ducklings from a deep drain in the middle of one of Auckland's busy motorways today.
A group of ducklings were rescued from a deep drain on Auckland's southwestern motorway. Photo: Sarah Robson
Motorists spotted the family of ducks on the southwestern motorway, near Mount Roskill, and the police were called just before 10am.
Sergeant Andy Meale said when officers turned up, there were no ducklings in sight - but they heard some quacking from a drain in the middle of one of the lanes of traffic.
Emergency crews try to rescue the ducks form the motorway drain. Photo: Supplied
"[The officer] had a look down and it was quite deep and he could see there were probably nine or 10 ducklings down there," he said.
"The mother was floating around the motorway, in the vicinity, sitting on the concrete barrier between the south and the north-bound lanes."
Meale said the police aren't really equipped for this sort of operation, so they called Fire and Emergency.
"They very kindly sent two trucks down."
Firefighters were able to get the grate off the top of the drain. They used a canvas bag attached to a rope and a long stick to prod the ducklings into the bag and get them out of the drain.
The whole operation took about 15 minutes, Meale said.
"Mum was keeping an eye on things but then she jumped on to the north-bound lanes. We were trying to shoo her away and she only took off at the last second as a car just about ran her over.
"She flew towards an area of bush on the western side of the motorway, so once the fire service had all the ducklings picked up, they drove around there in their trucks and found a small stormwater lake.
"Mum was floating around there with some other ducklings, so as soon as they released the ducklings they had recovered, mum swam over very excitedly and got the whole group together and that was a reunited, happy family."
Meale said police get a lot of calls about ducks - and other animals - on the motorways.
"Quite often it's a sad ending and the animal gets squashed before we can get there.
"Equally on other occasions we've had happy endings like today, we've recovered goats, sheep all sorts of animals - you'd be surprised what does end up on the motorway."
The ducklings are released in a small stormwater lake. Photo: Sarah Robson