Animal rescuers use mother duck YouTube video to save ducklings

Two quick-thinking women rescued a group of orphaned ducklings by using a YouTube recording of a mother's call to lure them to safety.

Best friends Caroline Appleby and Keeley Parsons rushed to help when they saw a social media alert about the two-week-old birds.

They found them at the side of a busy road in Calverley, West Yorkshire.

After struggling to coax them out of a bush, the pair played the video and the siblings walked towards them in a line.

Ms Appleby, 38, said it had proved tricky to snare the "incredibly fast" ducklings at first.

"As I got there, Keeley was on her hands and knees in the bushes as the ducklings had hid themselves," she said.

It was then that Ms Parsons thought to mimic the sound of a mother duck and played the video on her phone.

"They recognise that obviously it's either their siblings or mother calling. They just came out in a line, bless them," Ms Appleby said.

"We just couldn't have left them. They'd have died if we hadn't have rescued them."

It wasn't the first time the animal-mad pair had staged an impromptu wildlife rescue, according to Ms Appleby.

"We're both of the same mindset really, we both like to help if we can," she said.

"We've stopped traffic before in Horsforth to rescue hedgehogs and Keeley has rescued baby squirrels that have been blown out of trees.

"We're as bad as each other and our husbands despair."

After it emerged that the ducklings' mother had been hit by a vehicle in the village, they now have a new home - a chick warmer at Ms Appleby's house.

As news of the rescue spread, the friends hey were praised on social media with the rescue described as "brilliant".

"It's been a troubled time so it's light relief to see a nice, positive story for once," Ms Appleby said.

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