Altona's Buffalo Creek Nature Pond was the scene of a harrowing rescue Wednesday as volunteers with Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, located in Île-des-Chênes, set out to retrieve an injured Mallard duck from the water.
"It would have been a very long, slow, painful death."
The duck had been living there all summer and, with the help of locals, rehab centre officials had been monitoring its situation.
"We got a call about a month ago from somebody that was camping nearby, I guess they had a summer camp there, and they had said that this duck had been there all summer with what appeared to be a broken wing," Jordan Ojah, who works in the hospital at Wildlife Haven and is a certified Wildlife Rehabilitator. "Knowing that it was in open water, we explained to them that it would be quite a difficult rescue, but something that we would monitor. It wasn't until a about a week ago that we got a second call from somebody in Altona that was also concerned about this duck. Apparently, it had had a mate, but it had finally flown away, so all of its buddies were going down South, and they were just super concerned about this Mallard."
That's when the decision was made to attempt to rescue the creature.
'We knew it wouldn't be able to leave the area," explained Ojah. "So, if we didn't rescue it, it would have passed away. But it would have been a very long, slow, painful death because it would have either frozen with the upcoming snow or it would have starved to death because there's no more nutritious food around."
A difficult rescue
Ojah says the operation started out rough with the duck evading their efforts from shore.
"It was an adventure! At first, we had just gone there with high hopes and a couple of nets, and we made the initial launch at it. One of us may or may not have gone into the water...it wasn't me!
Eventually, after some spectators were cheering us on, I think they pretty quickly realized that we needed a little bit of help. So, one member of the public graciously went back to their house, and they were able to give us a really easy-to-use kayak. And so, one of us was able to get in the kayak and kind of divert the bird into an area that was a lot easier for us to kind of corner him and catch him."
However, the duck caught on and started diving under the water, further evading their nets. To make things worse, Ojah says at some point, the duck snuck past them and left the pond altogether, seeking refuge in the tall grass around the perimeter.
"There were four of us there and none of us saw that happen. So, we circled that pond about five times, and we were just about to call it and go back home, but before heading back to the rescue truck, something in us was just like, 'OK, let's just check this grass one more time'. So, we went through with our nets, and we were walking back, and this grass is like hip-height. We were checking under by the trees and everything and, it was quite far away, but I spotted it! It was laying down underneath a tree and it just looked exhausted. And so, I yelled to everyone, 'I have him. I found him!', and we all bolted towards him. It was probably the scariest thing for him, but we got him at the end of the day, and we were so happy that we just took that extra two minutes to just do a quick one last search around the pond."
An unhappy ending
This story, unfortunately, doesn't have a happy ending.
After getting checked by a veterinarian at the rehab centre, turns out the duck had a broken wing, but Ojah says the break was so severe they had to make the tough choice to euthanize it.
Despite this setback, Ojah encourages people who spot injured or unwell wildlife, to contact the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre so it can send its skilled team to evaluate the situation and possibly, save a life.
Here Candace Derksen's full interview with Ojah below.