Spokane Ducklings Hatch, Walk to Water!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/05/the-duck-parade.html

Banker Rescues Darling Ducklings
May 18, 2009 5:38 PM

Joel Armstrong is no duck connoisseur. The 43-year-old banker and father of two learned everything he knows about ducks through Google. But this Saturday, none of that mattered as he helped rescue a new family of ducklings.

For the past 35 days, Armstrong watched as a mother duck nested on a ledge outside his office window…two blocks from the Spokane River in Washington state. On Saturday morning, Armstrong arrived in town for the annual Lilac Festival parade. Seeing the newly hatched ducklings nervously pacing back and forth on the ledge, he knew they were stuck. Their mother stood waiting below, but the jump off the ledge was too far for the ducklings. (cut)

From the cynic: Ducks actually imprint on the female upon hatching and do not feed in the nest. Soon after hatching they often must drop as much as 80 meters (according to the Cornell University website) and, following the adult duck, walk to water to feed. The banker probably did more to interfere with the process than to facilitate it.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

People should just let the animals do their thing in a situation like that. I guess I'm a cynic too :\