Volunteers rescue 8 abandoned ducklings from drainage ditch

SAN MATEO (BCN) - Volunteers rescued a group of eight ducklings Monday that were abandoned by their mother after becoming trapped in a San Mateo storm drain, officials with the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said on Wednesday.

Society officials said the baby ducks are recovering after a motorist found them trapped in mud at the bottom of a concrete drainage ditch near the Poplar Avenue exit off southbound U.S. Highway 101 after the mother duck had flown away.

The rescue staff was able to save the ducklings, shelter spokeswoman Buffy Martin Tarbox said. Mother ducks can abandon their ducklings when they become scared or spooked, she said, and the babies need human intervention to survive.

The eight ducklings joined other ducklings at the shelter's wildlife care center and Tarbox said the baby birds are doing well. Shelter staff will return the ducklings to the wild once they are older and self-sufficient.