A group of ducklings is recovering at the SPCA Serving Erie County's Wildlife Center after they were discovered in a pan of grease at La Costa Verde Restaurant on Transit Road in Depew earlier this week.
The SPCA reports a Good Samaritan found the ducklings and brought them in to the Wildlife Center. According to the SPCA, that person likely saved the ducklings' lives. One of them had already started to suffer feather loss.
Volunteers used Dawn dish soap to clean the grease off each duckling. After that, the ducklings are rinsed twice and blow dried. They are put into an incubator to warm up and recover. Volunteers say after a little while in the ducklings will be placed in an outdoor enclosure. They're expected to be released back into the wild in six to seven weeks.
Having dirty feathers, especially grease, strips ducklings of their waterproofing. Ducklings depend on dry, waterproof feathers to be able to float. The SPCA says eventually these ducklings probably would have tried to swim and drowned.
In a Facebook live video about the ducklings, the SPCA thanks its donors, whose donations allow rescues like this to happen.
