Success! hatch confirms doubling of population
The short text sent from Madagascar by Team Pochard’s Owen Joiner (Aviculture Manager at WWT’s Washington Wetland Centre) said it all: “100% hatch just complete. Massive grins”
Fantastic news that all seven eggs from the third clutch of Critically Endangered Madagascar pochards have hatched successfully at the hotel – incredibly, the total number of chicks we've hatched in captivity in the past few weeks outweigh the small number of birds left in the wild! From a precarious 19 adult birds (of which just 6 are female on a single lake in northern Madagascar, we now have 40 Madagascan pochards.
This amazing feat is down to the avicultural skills of WWT’s very own Nige Jarrett and Sparky – now back in the UK after handing over to the second team in Madagascar. Before he left the country, one of Nige’s last jobs was to rush these ‘just laid’ eggs from the lake to the hotel as the rains threatened to cut them off. It was a gamble as the eggs were moved earlier than they would have liked and it was touch and go whether the treacherous and bumpy journey would have damaged the growing chicks in the eggs and stopped them from hatching successfully.
This decision was totally vindicated, as while the seven final chicks were hatching to the sound of heavy rain outside, they knew that, if they had waited, it would have been too late!
