Watch as newly hatched ducks make annual waddle through Massachusetts school

Simone Jasper
·2 min read

Ducklings paraded down the hallway of a Massachusetts school, continuing a wild annual tradition.

The newly hatched animals lined up behind their mom as they waddled through Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School, according to video shared Monday.

“The duck laid her eggs in the courtyard and hatched this weekend,” Ann Jacobsmeier, a sixth-grade history teacher at the Reading school, told Storyful. “They were walked out through the halls as some of the kids watched from the classroom windows.”

It’s not the first time the school has welcomed a family of waterfowl.

“Each year a mother duck lays eggs in our courtyard, which has no food or water once hatched,” the school wrote on Twitter in 2018. “We then allow them passage through the building and into nature.”

Ducks typically bring their babies to bodies of water within 24 hours of hatching, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the animals are found in a yard or another enclosed area, experts suggest leaving a gate open or leading them away.

Video shows the Massachusetts school workers using poster boards to help guide ducks through the halls.

To kick off the most recent annual trek, two people are seen leading the ducklings through an open door. At one point, the mother duck appears to veer off course and flap her wings as she faces a window.

But she and her 12 ducklings were all accounted for by the time they exited the school, according to other footage posted to Twitter. The next step in the adventure was a trip to the pond, officials said.

“The tradition continues,” the school roughly 15 miles north of downtown Boston wrote in a tweet.

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