Further success for world’s rarest duck as population doubles

The known population of the Madagascar pochard has doubled in the last 2 weeks. Photo credit Durrell

Two nests had eggs that were approaching readiness to hatch, but with the weather starting to close in and rains beginning, the team had to make a decision how to proceed. The first clutch of nine eggs was about to hatch and these were put into incubators by the side of the lake to hatch fully. The second clutch of seven eggs still have about a week to fully develop and should hatch fairly soon. Not wanting to become stuck at the lake during the rains, the team carefully moved the 9 hatched chicks and the 7 eggs to the temporary holding facility that had been established in a nearby town.

Population doubled
All chicks and eggs made the journey safely there are now 17 healthy chicks currently swimming in temporary ponds and 7 eggs about to hatch. This stunning success has effectively doubled the world's population of this critically endangered duck. The first group of 8 chicks are also developing very well and are already four times their hatching weight after just 2 weeks. The next step now is to build a specially designed breeding facility to manage this captive population into the future.

Rediscovered in 2006
The pochard, a medium-sized diving duck, was feared extinct by the late 1990s but it was rediscovered in 2006 when biologists from The Peregrine Fund, who were scouting for a threatened bird of prey, the Madagascar Harrier, observed 20 adult pochards living on a single lake in northern Madagascar.