Two Orphan Ducklings Who Lost Everything Are Now Best Friends

An orphaned duckling who survived horrific cruelty is doing just fine, thanks to a kind boy, a wildlife rehabilitator and a larger duckling with a little more life experience.

Annette Pyrah, who operates The Wildlife Orphanage in North Yorkshire, England, received a call on Saturday from someone who saw a group of 12-year-old boys beat a mother duck and her ducklings to death with a stick, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports. Police are investigating the incident.

But another boy, age 10, managed to save one of the ducklings, and the creature wound up in Pyrah’s care.

"I put the new duckling in an incubator , but I thought she was going to die," she told The Dodo. "She kept crying and crying, for hours.”

Pyrah decided to take a risk and place the newcomer with another, slightly older duckling that was already in her care. Someone found that duckling earlier in May, wandering in the road alone with no mother nearby.

It was a risk because unrelated ducklings don’t always get along, but she wanted to take the chance to ease the younger duckling’s extreme stress. It turns out she made the right choice.

“In the morning they were sitting together under the heater like two best friends ,” she told the York Press. “The older duckling has taken the traumatized baby under her wing and they are now inseparable."

Anyone who believes they’ve found an orphaned animal should consult with a qualified rehabber or expert before they take action, The Wildlife Orphanage warns on Facebook . People commonly mistake baby animals — particularly deer and rabbits — for orphans when in reality the mother has simply left them alone temporarily.