Firefighters rescue eight ruddy shelduck ducklings trapped in a cistern in La Degollada

The Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium intervened this Friday in the rescue of eight ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) ducklings that had become trapped inside a deep cistern in the La Degollada area, in the municipality of Yaiza.

The alert was given by the Local Police of Yaiza around 1:00 PM, reporting that the animals could not leave the place by their own means. Upon arriving at the scene of the incident, firefighters confirmed the seriousness of the situation: at the bottom of the tank were the eight live chicks, although they also reported that other specimens had already died.

Two members of the fire department entered the cistern and managed to rescue all the ducklings in one piece and without them suffering additional damage during the maneuver.

A family that was already "famous"

It so happens that La Voz de Lanzarote recently published a video sent by a reader in which this same family of red foxes —an adult with its young— was seen walking calmly in the vicinity of La Degollada.

The ruddy shelduck is a species of anatid with an appearance similar to that of a goose, of an orange-brown color, whose population in the Canary Islands is declared as wild. Being currently in full breeding season (which runs from April to August), it is common to see them in wetland areas or grazing on the edges of crops, which on this occasion led them to become trapped in this cistern in the south of the island.