A passerby appeared to come to the rescue of a group of ducks after they pushed their seemingly dead friend towards her, and she helped revive the bird on video.
When Sarah Young, 37, was passing by a pond while on vacation in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, she came across a group of ducks with one that, she said, seemed “off kilter.”
According to Sarah, one of the ducks had an eerie stillness about it, frozen with its head in the bushes and its legs sticking out behind it.
The moments that followed were hard to watch for Sarah from Salt Lake City, Utah, as the ducks then proceeded to poke the lifeless body with their beaks before starting to notice Sarah’s presence.
Over the minutes that followed, the ducks proceeded to prod the other duck’s body, which caused it to float towards Sarah.
The 37-year-old said she took it as a cry for help, given that the frozen duck’s head was still in the water, its neck limp.
As the lifeless duck floated towards her, Sarah then lifted its head, which, she said, eventually caused the duck’s eyes to open slowly.
Then, the duck started to cough up water through its nostrils before appearing to gain strength right before Sarah’s eyes.
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With her camera rolling, Sarah managed to capture the whole experience on February 5, which eventually saw the revived duck swim off towards its fellow ducks.
The next morning, Sarah returned to the pond, where she discovered three ducks sitting on an island.
One duck jumped into the water and swam to Sarah, the 37-year-old said, which she took as a thank you for helping the West Indies Whistling duck the previous day.
Sarah admitted that there was no way of knowing that this was the same duck as the day before, thanking her, but having posted a video of the events on social media, Sarah’s post soon went viral for the ducks’ apparent alturistic nature.
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Duck experts, however, expressed skepticism.
One said that the still duck’s actions were likely a result of a neurological differential – such as trauma, a viral cause, bacterial infections, intoxication, or, less likely, some kind of metabolic disease.
They also expressed concerns about other elements additional elements of how the video has been shared on social media: how ducks don’t tend to show nurturing instincts towards others; that the birds tend to aggression towards, and even peck, weaker individuals; that the current may have brought this bird towards Sarah; and how it was likely not the same duck the following day, given that all ducks in a communal pond may associate humans as a source of food and approach them.
Still, that didn’t stop viewers from seeing a positive, Disney-like way to perceive the story.
Sarah, describing the events, said: “I hurried back to my husband and proudly declared, ‘I saved a duck from drowning!’
“His response was a deadpan, ‘That’s not a thing, Sarah.’
“‘Yeah? Tell it to the duck,’ I said, and I whipped out the video evidence to shatter his doubt.
“Thousands of people saw the beauty and significance of the duck’s friends’ actions.
“They see beyond the surface, recognizing the innate value of capturing and sharing a moment of connection, compassion, and the resilience of life.”
