Larissa Beattie ended up in this exact position when she came across a loon on a country road in northern Ontario. She was out for a drive and saw webbed bird footprints, which looked out of place on a dirt road.

She followed the tracks and found a loon sitting on the side of the road.

“Loons don't actually have the anatomy that gives them the ability to walk on land, and so seeing them in the middle of the forest is quite strange,” Moira Parker, a wildlife care expert with the Guelph Humane Society, explains.

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In the case of Larissa's loon, the situation was definitely not normal. The bird was weak and thirsty, and she remembered what her grandfather taught her.

Here’s how to rescue and care for animals in trouble.

In Larissa

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