MADAGASCAR POCHARDS + ME

30 YEARS, ONE DUCK

DR GLYN YOUNG HEAD OF BIRD DEPARTMENT

Young pochard in front of a floating aviary at Lake Sofia

My interest, some may say obsession, started in earnest exactly 30 years ago. It’s been an extraordinary ride.

Starting at Durrell in the 1980s, my then boss, David Jeggo, encouraged me to plan a project from start to finish. Maybe he meant it as good personal development but he didn’t factor in innate stubbornness. A wildfowl enthusiast from a young age and learning the importance of Madagascar and its many extraordinary animals and plants meant that research into the country’s ducks came easily. I quickly realised that there were 10 to choose from, four found nowhere else and none even remotely safe or, indeed, understood. Plenty to work on, plenty in need of good science and conservation. Plans came, plans were turned down, refined and resubmitted. I was introduced to Jonathan Smith, then at Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and similarly in need of an exciting challenge. More planning ensued. Then, we met ornithologist and Madagascar resident Olivier Langrand and invited him to Jersey Zoo to present the country’s birdlife, highlight its conservation needs and suggest where Durrell could help. To say that Olivier was prepped would be, well, true. He was asked the right question at the right time in his talk, by the right person who may just have been lined up: “which bird do you think most needs conservation, a species where Durrell could help”? The reply was the Madagascar pochard. The pochard, despite once being considered common, had not been seen at its only site, Lake Alaotra, since 1960. Did it still exist, what could be done for it?

Dr Glyn Young

In 1989, Jonathan and I, with university students Rivo and Patrice, and Olivier’s support went on to spend six weeks in dugout canoes, camping with fishermen deep in the extensive reedbeds of Alaotra. We saw more of this great lake and it’s marshes than any European possibly ever: from its birdlife to endless smoked fish, from illicit rum to being honoured guests at circumcisions, from tortoise eggs

unsuccessfully incubated by a chicken to the gentle lemurs that later became another target species for Durrell. We didn’t see any pochards though, or find any hope for their survival. We did, however, leave our mark in lakeside communities and amongst the fishermen so that people would look out for “onjy”, the local name for the Madagascar pochard, and let us know.

And so, in 1991, after 30 years apparent absence, a male pochard turned up, caught by fishermen. This bird went on to live in captivity while an even larger survey again failed to find any more. We never gave up hope. I turned my attention to the Madagascar teal and Meller’s duck, studying these equally unknown species in the zoo in Jersey and in Madagascar, establishing the first breeding programmes for them while, supported throughout by Durrell, I gained two research degrees through my attempts to understand them

and help ensure their future. And what name was chosen for my first daughter? Aythya. Taken from the latin name for the Madagascar pochard.

Madagascar pochard

We never lost faith, despite no one coming forward with news. However, in 2004 at the Linnean Society of London, looked down on by the portraits of Darwin and Wallace, I suggested that the pochard might be added to that sad line of Indian Ocean ducks to become extinct. As a result it was declared “Possibly Extinct”. This seemed the catalyst the pochard needed to prove its continued survival and in 2006, Lily-Arison Rene de Roland of The Peregrine Fund (TPF) reported a small group of pochards in the mountains of north-west Madagascar, miles from Lake Alaotra. Within days I travelled to the location to assess the situation and to once again start planning the recovery of the rarest duck in the world (perhaps also the rarest bird?). In 2009, against the odds, we collected eggs and established a first-ever captive breeding population in Madagascar, alongside colleagues from WWT. Our first baby hatched in 2011, the 100th in 2018. Last year, we were delighted to welcome HRH Princess Anne and the President of Madagascar to open our second breeding centre.

With so few in the wild, we needed to start using our captive-bred young to establish a new population and, with WWT, we did just that in December 2018 at Lake Sofia. With a revolutionary use of floating aviaries on the lake, which had been adapted from Scottish salmon farming cages, 21 young pochards were gently introduced into their new home. Now, 30 years after Durrell first went to look for the pochard, will the “fotsimaso” (another name for pochards used in Northern Madagascar) survive? We will have to wait and see. But with our partners WWT, The Peregrine Fund, Asity Madagascar and the country’s government, we can guarantee they have a good chance and we are still making plans to ensure the long-term survival of the species.