A MOTHER duck in distress was helped by a concerned student who realised her ducklings had fallen down the drain.

University of Winchester student Kiara and staff member Katherine Lawrence ventured on a daring duckling rescue to save several young ducks.

Katherine said: “Mother duck was distressed but I, and others before me, had just shooed her safely out of the path of oncoming traffic and couldn’t work out what was wrong.

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“Kiara cleverly thought to look in the drain and sure enough, we could see and hear several very new ducklings. We called a wonderful groundsman, James, to help - he thought to go and get his litter picker and very gently used it to raise the ducklings one by one out of the drain, passing them to Kiara.

Hampshire Chronicle: The safe duck and her ducklings

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“As Kiara walked slowly down to the pond holding the ducklings, they called out to their mother to follow and all were reunited happily at the pond.

“The wonderful team who pulled together calmly in a crisis, were friendly and supportive with the student and great with the distressed wildlife and are clearly expertly looking out for a lot of wildlife on campus, something I didn’t realise as a member of staff who just sees them gardening – I have even more respect for the team now than I already had when enjoying our beautiful campus.

“Kiara checked again in the afternoon and found a further duckling. Several of the grounds team helped her rescue the duckling (nicknamed Bumblebee) but as yet no sign of mum – Bumblebee is being cared for and the search for mum will resume.”