A Good Samaritan and wildlife experts took a quack at a highway rescue Monday, saving eight ducklings from under an Interstate 25 frontage road.
New Mexico Game and Fish officials were called to the busy highway near its interchange with Interstate 40 in Albuquerque when nine mallard ducklings got trapped in a storm drain.
At first rescuers weren’t able to get too close to the ducks because they didn’t have the right equipment to remove a grate from the drain.
Fortunately Chris Spease did, lending his help and his tools to get the grate off.
After 20 minutes of crawling around underneath the frontage road, rescuers were able to get the ducks out.
Their mother, who had watched the rescue, disappeared afterwards, so the ducklings are being cared for at a local wildlife rescue center.
One of the ducklings didn’t make it, but the other eight are doing fine.