I am glad the duckling was returned to live a natural life and appeared to be accepted. Nothin' in the world cuter than a baby duck and it's heart wrenching to stand by when you see one that appears to be in need.
I don't know if the same could happen with ducks, but my friend the licensed wildlife rehabber tried to place an orphaned Canada gosling with a family of Canada geese, and while both the parents accepted the newcomer, the other goslings did not. They picked on the outcast so much that he had to be removed and raised by my friend until the earliest possible release back to the wild. He was housed with other birds so he wouldn't be lonely; unfortunately there were no other waterfowl of an appropriate age at the time to keep him company. He was released back to her pond when he was old enough and I guess he blended in and did goose things as I never heard any more about him.
I soooo wanted to adopt the cute little bugger but of course I was not allowed. A couple months laster, I was at her place when she got a call from the local DNR about a family who had a Canada goose captive, in with their other ducks. They obtained him in a similar manner to the OP and while their hearts were in the right place, they still could not keep him (and could have been fined had the officers been of the mind to do so). Talk about a wild goose chase! I helped herd him into a dog carrier, but unfortunately the door came off as we were about to put him in the truck and he flew/ran right back to the pen where we had gotten him. I felt kinda bad that he was being taken from the home he know, but I understood why. (The owners, while getting an A for effort in terms of pen building, failed miserably in the upkeep department as it was a brutally hot day and their chickens were completely out of water, so I spent time amending that situation, since nobody was home at the time). The goose moved to my friend's pond as well, and also lived to do goose things.
