While we love our domestic pets, they are still derived from wild blood.

And while we show our beloved cats and dogs the benefits of play and affection, there are still times when instinctual desire kicks in and overtakes all. ‘Prey drive’ is a natural instinct that occurs in our furry friends, because truthfully, cats and dogs are both predators and hunters. To an extent, we share this in common with our pets and can even relate with them on a primal level. However, in modern times, we work hard to establish an element of ‘playful hunting’ to tame those innate desires.

Enter Lorraine Martin of Wardieburn Terrace, Edinburgh.

You can only imagine her shock when she discovered her young German Shepherd, Duke, with a group of ducklings in his mouth.

And perhaps you can only imagine the horror when the ducklings were snatched up in the sharp jaws of a large German Shepherd.

But Duke had other plans that day.

The one-year-old dog had discovered the ducklings in a nearby bush outside his owner’s workplace on the edge of the Thornybank Industrial Estate in Dalkeith. The frightened mallard ducklings, separated and lost from their mother, had hidden themselves in tall grass outside. Thankfully, Duke discovered them with the best intentions in his heart.

Martin was stunned to find her dog mouthing the baby birds. Although, she acknowledged in an interview with The Scotsman that he was inherently a gentle dog. She had found him abandoned, and hand-reared the dog since he was but a mere seven weeks old. Since then, he’s never left her side.

She takes Duke with her everywhere, including to work at the estate every day.

Martin admits that his gruesome and fearful looks make him the perfect guard dog, and is delighted to have his company with her. And while he may look gruesome, his heart is gold.

In the interview she reveals:

“I had just taken him out for a walk around the site and he went straight into the bushes and was sniffing around excitedly. Then his head came up and I could see he had something in his mouth, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I told him to drop it, but he just ignored me and padded back into the cabin where his blanket is. When I went inside I saw he had put two baby ducklings on his blanket and was standing over them, licking them to make sure they were clean.”

Duke had, in fact, rescued the ducklings from greater harm.

Despite his hunter instincts, the dog carefully plucked the ducklings from the undergrowth, taking them back to his blanket to tend to them. This kind and gentle act surely saved the ducklings from outdoor predators. Immediately, the Scottish SPCA took the ducklings in to be watched after by the Middlebank Wildlife Centre in Dunfermline.

“Ducklings often wander away from the nest at this time of year and they can be in a lot of danger from cats and gulls and crows, all of which will pick them up and kill them. These two were lucky to have been caught in such a friendly pair of jaws. This dog is a modern day Rin Tin Tin, and to pick them up in his mouth without harming them is quite something.”

What a good boy, Duke!

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Source: The Scotsman, Good News Network