A road crew in Alexandra, New Zealand, pulled ducklings out of a roadside drain one by one
Six to eight ducklings fell into a roadside drain in Alexandra, Central Otago. A road crew got them out one by one, and then the mother duck walked the whole brood across the road.
28 October 2026
Photo: supplied, via RNZ
Road contractors in Alexandra, Central Otago, rescued ducklings from a roadside drain on Wednesday morning, RNZ reported on 21 October.
Barbara Hall, who lives in Alexandra, was cycling home from Clyde on the rail trail with a group when they saw it. “We saw these men with their heads down the drain, and mother duck was distressed,” she told RNZ. “They were getting the ducklings out one by one.”
Six to eight ducklings had fallen into the drain, Hall said. The workers, from Fulton Hogan, had to reach a long way down. “Even one person was holding on to another person’s legs as he went further down the drain. So they did a great job,” she said.
Photo: supplied, via RNZ
Once they were all out, the mother duck gathered her brood, about a dozen ducklings, and set off. “Mama Duck decided that she would take them across the road. So we looked out for cars while they were going across,” Hall said.
Carry a story in five words
We run a game called Long Story Short: one real news sentence a day, and you keep the five words that carry it. Today’s is below. Do play.
How to play
One real news sentence. The job is to keep the five words that carry the story and let the rest go, then guess. Blue means the right word in the right place, orange the right word in the wrong place.
Yesterday: About three kilometres out in an Australian bay, a kangaroo was swimming when a fishing crew rescued it through their boat’s sea door; back ashore, it hopped away. The five were fishing crew rescued swimming kangaroo.