Columbus police and animal care services were involved in a special rescue effort yesterday afternoon.

Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus Police Department says that rescue workers recovered nine ducklings from a storm drain.

Harris said that passersby heard the cries of the ducklings at about 1 p.m. near Seventh Street and Pleasant Grove. Officer Chris Strickland rescued two of the ducklings by hand and returned them to their mother — but the other seven were stuck in a part of the drain about 10 feet under the street.

Harris says that Chris McDaniel with Columbus Animal Care Services was able to use a net to remove the remaining seven. But they couldn’t reunite those ducklings with their mother. Instead, the city workers took the ducks to Utopia Wildlife Center near Hope.

Harris said the ducks appeared to be about two weeks old and they are in good health.