This article originally appeared on buckrail.com.
WYOMING – We love stories like this. How can you not?
Currently, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is catching some flak from those opposed to the hunting of grizzly bears. The agency is sometimes accused of relying on hunting as its sole tool of population management, and exploiting it for the sake of revenue.
Then a story like this comes along and we are all reminded that most of the people that make up WGFD take the job because they care about animals. Bottom line.
Duck-Duck-Goose
We head to the hustle and bustle of Casper. Along the heavily-travelled Interstate 25, Brian Wagner of the Wyoming Department of Transportation took notice of a mallard hen sticking close to a storm drain. Too close. Something was wrong.
Wagner decided to investigate a little further. That’s when he found several ducklings stranded in the storm sewer drain below. They must have washed in there during a recent heavy rain the night before, Wagner thought.
Got him. That last duckling proved stubborn but rescuers were stubborner. (WGFD)
He called Game and Fish and asked if they could help out. Game Wardens Matt Withroder and Jake Kettley responded, and met Brian at Bryan Stock Trail along I-25.
After making a plan, game wardens enlisted the help of a nearby construction crew to remove the heavy grates so they could get at the ducklings. They lifted three storm grates as Matt and Jake used dip nets to scoop up each of the ducklings.
It worked perfectly for five of the little ducks. The sixth and last one got wise to the tactics after watching his brothers and sisters netted. He decided to hunker down right in the middle of the sewer pipe, out of reach of the nets. That little stinker wouldn’t emerge from either end of the storm pipe where the dip nets were waiting for him.
Probably most people would have given up at that point, satisfied with at least saving five out of the six ducklings.
But no. Matt and Jake called in the City of Casper Fire-EMS Department. They arrived and came up with the idea to fill the storm sewer with water from their hoses. That caused the last reluctant duckling to float right out of the pipe where he was quickly netted and hoisted to safety.
The six ducklings were then safely released to join their mother at nearby Bryan Stock Trail Pond.
It took two state agencies and a city fire department to rescue six ducklings. More so, it took several compassionate people who wouldn’t quit ‘til the job was done.
Brian, Matt, Jake, and everyone else who restored our faith in humanity—Buckrail thanks you. And we are not going to let your efforts go unnoticed. You guys rock!