World's Rarest Bird, Madagascar Pochard, Gets New Home

The rarest bird in the world -- a species of duck called the Madagascar pochard -- has been given a new home in time for the new year. From a report: An international team of researchers released 21 of the birds at a lake in the north of Madagascar. It is a step towards the recovery of a species that just over a decade ago was thought to be extinct. Rescuing the species could also be a first step in protecting Madagascar's threatened wetlands. When it wasn't seen for 15 years, the Madagascar pochard was believed to have been wiped out completely. Then a tiny group of the birds was rediscovered in 2006 at one remote lake. These were the last 25 Madagascar pochards on the planet. Wetland habitats in the country have been so polluted and damaged that these few remaining birds had been forced into this last untouched area.

Sadly, duck soup will soon be on the menu

[fredrated]

and then that will be that.

Re: If you can.

[Anonymous Coward]

Release the hounds, Smithers

Re:Sadly, duck soup will soon be on the menu

[alvinrod]

If this bird were tasty, people would probably cultivate it and take care of it. Cows and chickens are scarcely in any danger of going extinct after all. Animals that are useful to humans in some way tend to thrive.

Re:

[dunkelfalke]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

only if they let Americans in - BUILD THE WALL NOW,

Re:

[Joce640k]

You got to be shitting me. Your president wants to spend 2 billion to build a god damn wall like we live in east germany, and you have the gall to say "at least it isn't my money".

(snork)

Only 2 billion?

Don't forget the trillions spent on the F35, etc. Those things are totally necessary for the future of the USA. Despite drones.

Oh wait, according to Wikipedia one of those things actually managed to fly a complete mission in September! Go, USA!!

(No word on what happened since then, I guess the one working F35 needed some work afterwards...)

Re:At what cost?

[ShanghaiBill]

50 is far below the 'viable' level and attempting to rescue such a species is unlikely to succeed.

This was true before DNA splicing was developed, but not anymore. A flock of 25 may lack sufficient genetic diversity, but we can splice in more variety by sequencing feathers in museum collections, or even from related species.

last?

[ChoGGi]

These were the last 25 Madagascar pochards on the planet.

Last known maybe, whose to say there weren't more flocks?

Re:last?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Yup. If they thought they were extinct, then found a flock... it can be reasonably assumed there aren’t a lot of them left. But the fact that one flock escaped detection for 15 years does leave open the possibility that at least one other flock might also exist.

Re:

[Cmdln Daco]

"Escaping attention" is pretty important.

World's Rarest Bird?

[ChrisMaple]

How about the ivory-billed woodpecker?

Ducks to save the wetlands

[Daralantan]

I wonder what impact they would have on the ecosystem to improve its situation? I'm not questioning or criticizing this, I'm just wondering what role they would serve. I recall seeing a video a while back about introducing foxes, deer, or whatever into some forest and the massive impact and improvement they had. Then again new creatures can also have a massive negative impact. It's interesting to see what one little species ends up doing.