男子竟当上“鸭妈妈”

有些动物天生就有一种特性，对它们出生时第一眼看见的东西会留有永恒深刻的印象。

日前一名男子意外成为13只小鸭的妈妈，因为他是这些小鸭破壳而出时看到的第一个移动的东西。

这群小鸭的妈妈在它们孵化出来前就已经被杀死了，为了拯救小鸭，这位名叫瑞克的男子带走了13颗蛋，并把它们放进孵化器。

当小鸭们被孵化出来时，它们立刻把瑞克认作自己的妈妈，瑞克走到哪，它们就跟到哪。

在接下来几个星期，瑞克可有的忙活了，他不光要打扫鸭羽毛，还要照顾小鸭子们，这也给了他一个庆祝母亲节的新理由。

A man accidentally became a Mother to 13 ducklings when their eggs hatched and he was the first moving object they saw.

The process, known as imprinting, is a form of attachment that the ducklings normally use to identify their mother. However, the mother of these ducklings was apparently killed before the eggs hatched.

In an attempt to save the little ducks, the man took the 13 eggs and placed them in an incubator. The eggs hatched, the ducklings first saw the man, named Rick, and now they are attached. This is evidenced in a new viral video with more than 128,000 views.

"She never came back," Rick says in the video of the ducklings' mother. "There's feathers everywhere. The 30-second clip of the ducklings following Rick around was uploaded to YouTube on Sunday by his neighbor Matthew Sargent. A link to the video also found its way to Reddit via Sargent's daughter, Carlisle.

"I asked my dad about what my neighbor plans to do with the ducklings, and apparently he is going to keep them at his home for a while, and train them to use the bathroom in one part of his yard," she commented on Reddit. "My dad said also my neighbor is gonna wait til their oil comes in and then take them to live in the ponds/little lakes in our neighborhood."

Rick will probably be cleaning up more than just feathers over the next few weeks, but he will also have a new reason to celebrate Mother's Day.