First step to save the world's rarest bird taken successfully!

[Donna]

A complicated and challenging mission to a remote lake in Madagascar has resulted in
a huge step being taken in efforts to save the world's rarest duck from extinction.

A collaborative team of specialists were hampered by electrical storms, gruelling
journeys and illness in their bid to secure a precious batch of eggs laid by the
Critically Endangered Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata) in early October.

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.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), The
Peregrine Fund and the Government of Madagascar joined efforts to establish a
conservation-breeding programme for the ducks, with the hope of reintroducing them
back into their wetland habitats.

However, an emergency rescue plan was mounted after a reconnaissance visit in July
revealed the situation was worse than feared - with the sighting of just six females
and evidence that the young had died just a few weeks old.

As a result, members of the team monitored the tiny population during their breeding
season, reporting that three female birds were preparing to lay eggs. A team of duck
specialists from WWT and Durrell immediately flew to Madagascar in an attempt to
bring the eggs into captivity.

Patience was becoming a required skill, as Glyn Young from Durrell describes; "It
was a race against time to get the team and the equipment to the lake before eggs
started hatching. The situation was not made any easier as massive electrical storms
had delayed our arrival in the country. Once all the equipment had cleared Customs,
we had to wait for three days as a bridge was repaired on the only access road to
the lake. To add to our woes, having finally made it to the lake, we all fell ill!"

Having commandeered part of a local hotel in order to create a temporary breeding
facility, a batch of eggs was removed from a lake-side nest as near to hatching as
possible. With extreme care, the day-old ducklings were transported to their
make-shift rearing facility, 12 hours away.

Peter Cranswick from WWT describes the significance of this achievement, "This is
conservation at the cutting edge. The urgency of the situation has meant a great
deal of invention and improvisation - but next year simply may have been too late.
Safely bringing birds into captivity marks the start of a 20- or 30-year
conservation project that will also help restore wetlands across the region."

Eight ducklings are now reported to be doing very well, but work continues as the
team attempts to secure two more clutches from the wild over the next few weeks.
However, this collaborative rescue mission has provided hope for the future for the
Madagascar pochard.

"This is the first important step toward saving this rare species from extinction,"
said Russell Thorstrom, a biologist in charge of The Peregrine Fund's Madagascar
program. "It shows how organizations working cooperatively can overcome challenges
and continue onward in their conservation effort for this critically endangered
duck."