World’s rarest duck receives cash boost

The Madagascar pochard was believed extinct until 2006, when a tiny population was discovered. Credit Durrell

March 2010. £282,000 over three years from Defra's Darwin Initiative will help to fully establish the breeding programme, which was started late last year as an emergency measure following the news that only six females remained in the wild. As well as supporting breeding and rearing the birds, the money will pay to train Malagasy conservationists and develop a recovery plan and identify lakes in the region where the ducks can potentially be reintroduced. Fundraising is now underway to build a conservation-breeding centre for the project in Madagascar.

Just 20 ducks alive, and only 6 females
Last year, an expedition confirmed that the remaining population of only 20 ducks at a single location contained just six females and that none of the young from the previous year had survived. With the species facing such a precarious future, a unique partnership formed to ensure the ducks' survival: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), The Peregrine Fund, whose scientist rediscovered the duck, and the Government of Madagascar.

With minimal disturbance to the adult ducks, the team were able to remove three clutches of eggs from nests and have been able to rear the 23 ducklings that hatched in a temporary facility

23 ducklings hatched
In November, the partnership managed to establish a safety-net population. With minimal disturbance to the adult ducks, the team were able to remove three clutches of eggs from nests and have been able to rear the 23 ducklings that hatched in a temporary facility.

Durrell's Project Leader, Dr Glyn Young, says, "This dramatic mission was a vital first step but now we need to establish a sustainable breeding programme and to identify suitable locations to reintroduce ducks in the future. The Darwin Initiative support will allow us to do this."

Immediate risk of extinction has been averted
WWT's Peter Cranswick added, "This money effectively means that the immediate risk of extinction for the Madagascar Pochard has been averted. Many challenges lie ahead for its long-term survival - not least, to ensure that the needs of both local Malagasy people and the Pochard can be harmonised at key wetlands - but the project is now well and truly underway."

The Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata) had become so rare that in 2004 it was thought to have gone extinct and been lost forever. However, in 2006, a tiny population was discovered high in the mountains of Madagascar's central plateau. Having disappeared elsewhere through the combined effects of habitat loss and competition from introduced fish into the lakes it inhabited, this remote location offered the only remaining haven for the species.