SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Michelle Marshman is frustrated and disappointed that at least one baby duckling died after getting stranded in a parking lot Monday afternoon. She says wildlife officials should have got involved.

Michelle Marshman stands over the corpse of a duckling she tried to protect earlier in the afternoon Monday. It appeared to have been killed by a raven. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

The duckling's ordeal started when it tried to cross the busy intersection on Old Airport Road near the Saan store with its six siblings and mother.

Marshman got a call from her fiancé mid-afternoon; he was waiting in the Saan parking lot where he was keeping an eye on the family of ducklings. Their mother abandoned them after the ducklings failed to cross the intersection.

The ducklings were too small to fly or to hop over the road median. They sought refuge by swimming in a puddle in the parking lot after their mother was scared off by traffic.

"They were literally helpless," said Marshman. "They were crying for their mom, only it was tiny little chirps, they couldn't even quack."

She and several other concerned bystanders spent close to two hours trying to keep an eye on the ducklings.

They were worried the baby ducks would be attacked by ravens or run over by vehicles at the intersection. They called the RCMP and the SPCA but each time they were directed to the Renewable Resources department.

When they phoned the department, they got the same answer: the ducks would figure it out on their own.

The 21-year-old University of Lethbridge student said she is upset and disappointed the government didn't try to help.

"It's very hopeless when you're standing there and you don't know what to do," she said.

"Why is it that we have an organization dedicated to helping wildlife that doesn't seem to be helping wildlife?" she asked. "As a community, we're trying to preserve wildlife and we can't do that if the services don't help."

Fred Mandeville, manager of wildlife and environment for the North Slave region, said he wasn't aware of Marshman's particular call, but said they received several calls from different locations.

"It's the time of year when mothers are bringing them to different feeding spots and we can't respond to every call on ducklings," he said.

"The best thing they could do is leave them alone and ensure that the ducks can waddle off on their own," he said.

"As long as they're left in the general area they may seem to be abandoned but the mother isn't far away … the mother's not going to come as long as there's people around."

After waiting by the roadside for several hours, people herded the ducks into a dog kennel and carried them to Frame Lake.

Marshman later discovered a bloodied fluff ball on a trail next to the marshy shore, an hour after the brood was carried over to the area.

She said what happened to the duckling probably couldn't have been prevented, but she wished someone would have assessed the situation and re-assured the people who were trying to help.

Mandeville said had a wildlife officer arrived, they'd probably have done the same thing and herded the ducklings to the closest lake.

"(Bystanders) did a good job," Mandeville said, adding that the odds are always 50/50 that ducklings will survive on their own.