Owl Found To Be Raising Little Duckling In Adorable Photo

Animals continue to inspire people with their amazing acts of kindness. A wildlife photographer has just discovered that an owl has taken a duckling under its wing after the little duck’s parents abandoned it. Not surprisingly, the photo of the sweet twosome had people talking about how animals are more capable of loving one another than humans.

Laurie Wolf took the photo of the adorable pair in Jupiter, Florida. The photographer initially believed that the owl was looking after her own hatchlings. However, on closer inspection, Wolf realized that the tiny chick beside the owl was actually a baby duck.

The owl and the duckling seemed cozy in their little home.

It’s certainly an awesome photo but Wolf was also worried for the duckling. After all, owls are predators and the photographer was concerned that the mother owl would turn on the baby duck. Nevertheless, Wolf’s worries were unfounded when the owl allowed the duckling to head for the pond on its own. She wrote:

“So, this happened last evening just before dark. UPDATE…a bit later, the baby duck was in the hole by itself, calling for the parents.

“We believe they heard each other because it suddenly left the box and made a beeline for the back fence and our neighbour’s pond where the woodies have been hanging out.

“Also, we had seen a female wood duck – about three or four weeks ago, remove a duck egg from a box that had been raided by something, and fly off toward this box with it. We lost it in the trees and didn’t want to disturb it. But we believe she put it in this box and the owl hatched it.”

Christian Artuso of the Manitoba director of Bird Studies Canada explained that the idea of another bird species raising a chick from a different species is “not commonly documented, but it certainly happens.”

What an adorable pair!

“You could think of it as not keeping all your eggs in one basket. If you spread your eggs out, then your chances of passing on your genes are increased slightly, especially if you lose your own eggs to a predator,” Artuso said. “We know this occurs, but we really don’t know the frequency, so I was happy to see another example of this.”

The duckling has yet to be found after it wandered away from its adoptive owl mother. Nevertheless, people are hoping that it gets to enjoy life with its fellow ducks.