Durrell helps to return world’s rarest duck to ancestral home

Sunday 22 October 2023

The world’s rarest duck – once thought to be extinct – has returned to its ancestral home after decades, thanks to the efforts of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

The trust has announced that the Madagascar pochard, also known as Fotsimaso, has returned to Lake Alaotra, where the last individual was seen over 30 years ago.

The species was previously thought to be extinct for 15 years, before a tiny population was found on a remote lake in 2006.

Since 2009, Durrell has worked on a captive breeding-and-release programme, and discovered that the rare birds travelled south from their reintroduction site in Lake Sofia to their historical home, which was over 300 kilometres away.

The conservation programme, established in partnership with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Government of Madagascar, Asity Madagascar, and The Peregrine Fund, has helped the known population to increase from 26 to around 119 birds.

This includes 83 birds that have been released back into the wild following Durrell’s and partners’ efforts, as well as ten offspring that have now hatched in the wild.

There have been four solitary females, and one couple so far found at the lake.

The team hopes that these ducks will now settle, but it is unknown if and how they will find food, reproduce, or if they will return to Lake Sofia.

The Durrell team continues to monitor them to understand their habitat use and behaviour in their “new” environment.

Felix Razafindrajao, co-ordinator of the project at Durrell, said their return demonstrated “the success of Durrell’s reintroduction programme, the aim of which is to
re-establish populations in its former range”.

He continued: “It is also a source of pride for the members of the Fotsimaso team, as their hard work has produced the desired results.

“Although some released individuals are returning to Lake Alaotra, the species’ last site of observation, the release programme will continue this year to strengthen the
population at the release site.”

Dr Lesley Dickie, the trust’s chief executive, paid tribute to the “incredible work” of the team and the partners.

“In a world that’s full of conservation challenges, we all need stories like this to give us some hope and reaffirm the value of investing in wildlife,” she added.