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| Jun. 1, 2004. 01:00 AM |
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Family finds campus life not all it's quacked up to
be
Mother, baby ducks get escort to water
Security
staff stop at nothing to assist
LOUISE
BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
They're the new web-footed stars of the Web — 12 baby
ducks trapped in a university flowerbed who landed a full
security escort off campus to freedom.
And they can't duck fame, because photos of their
rescue have become the hit of the Queen's University Web site.
"Normally, of course, we're not at liberty to talk
about individuals we have to escort off campus, but this time
I think I can lift the `gaggle' order," quipped David
Patterson, director of security at the Kingston university.
Staff spotted the frantic hatchlings one recent
afternoon behind a bush outside the security office, in a flap
at being unable to get down from the metre-high flowerbed
wall.
With the university's young party animals gone for the
summer, campus police were free to help the feathered critters
make their way to Lake Ontario.
Scrounging a board from the lost-and-found department,
they rigged up a ramp so Mother Mallard and her dozen
ducklings could make their way to the grass below.
"But only half the ducklings chose to walk the plank,"
Patterson said. "The other half took a dive into the grass."
Four security guards then stopped traffic as the freed
fowl waddled their way to the nearby shoreline, with just a
few wrong turns along the way.
"A few cars started honking — pardon the pun — to show
their support," Patterson said. "For us, it's a five-minute
walk, but the ducks took an hour and a half."
While ducks started showing up on campus last year,
this was the first time staff had noticed a nest with eggs.
Not that it's unusual to spot wildlife on campus at this time
of year.
An orphaned baby squirrel being chased by children and
birds was rescued last week by security guard Tammy Babcock,
who has adopted the orphaned rodent until it grows strong
enough to be set free. It's her second rodent rescue this
year.
And there was the skunk last fall whose head got stuck
in a Bick's relish jar and had to be liberated by unusually
brave security guard Jason Pullman.
"We were on duty at 4 in the morning when this huge
skunk weaved on to the road with his head stuck in a jar. I
couldn't watch it die; it would have suffocated if I hadn't
done something, " he recalled.
As his dumbfounded partner watched on, Pullman
approached the animal — "careful to avoid the business end" —
and grabbed the jar with both hands to pull.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, on a campus that requires
higher entry marks than other Ontario universities, the
Queen's skunk immediately knew what it had to do. "It began
pushing with its back legs and I felt its front paws against
my wrist, and we both tugged against each other and the jar
came off."
Pullman fell backwards in his rush to get away, but his
encounter didn't scare him off campus creatures.
When he spotted the ducks' nest this spring, he
couldn't resist waiting for the mother to take a brief break
so he could inspect the nest. He saw only a blanket of downy
gray feathers lining a hole in the ground, so he gently pushed
a finger through the feathers until he felt the eggs, which
were white and warm to the touch.
Graphic designer Rhonda Hirschfield was the first to
spot the ducks making the nest in April, and said staff became
so protective of the expectant mother that someone placed a
baby bathtub filled with water nearby so she could do laps
without neglecting her young.
"They say ducks have limited intelligence," Patterson
said, "but these ones were smart enough to build their nest
right outside the security office, where they were assured
'round-the-clock surveillance."
To view their journey to freedom, check the Queen's
security Web site at http://www.queensu.ca/
security/graphics/2004/int-0405-02.html.
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