A mother duck paced back and forth on Sunday while police, public works and a resident rescued her five ducklings from a storm drain in Truro, N.S.

Truro police got the call after a man noticed a mother duck in the street about to be hit by a car, said Const. Wendy Cormier.

"[After] a little further investigation he heard some chirping coming from the storm drain and he went over and saw them down there," said Cormier.

A public works staffer was on the scene within minutes to help remove the drain cover.

Cormier didn't hesitate to jump into the drain, she said.

"I couldn't get to the call fast enough actually to get them outta there," said Cormier. "I was the smallest one there, so I got picked to go down and fish them out."

When she got inside, she saw that the ducklings were walking in a pipe between drains.

The public works staffer got in the other drain and retrieved one duckling. Cormier rescued the other four while the mother duck stayed nearby.

"Once we got them out it was almost like she knew we had them and that they were safe," said Cormier, who put the ducklings in a box.

"As soon as she noticed we had them out she started walking away, just basically wanted us to follow her."

The mother duck led them to the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.

"She stopped and just waited for us to put them down on the ground and we just set the box over on its side and little ducks came out of the box and right over to their mom.

"It was a pretty good feel good story for Mother's Day."

MORE TOP STORIES