Fotsy Maso: the pochard mission gets underway

Since our last visit to the pochard lake (Lake Matsaborimena) in July we have had a field team at the lake watching the pochards and taking detailed notes. Kassidi (Durrell) and Toulu (The Peregrine Fund) are two of the most experienced duck men in Madagascar. They have made a number of critical observations including the hatching of three nests in September. Of 19 recorded ducklings hatched since September, only three, however, are still alive. The others have disappeared mysteriously one by one, all before reaching two weeks of age. Kassidi and Toulu are currently watching three other active nests, all being incubated.

The decision has been made to collect eggs close to hatching from these three nests in October/November, to hatch the eggs in portable incubators at the camp site near the lake, and then transfer the newly hatched ducklings to a temporary captive facility in the town of Antsohihy. We join the team in Tana as they are preparing to make the long trip to the field site near the lake, to collect eggs from the first nest and begin a captive breeding population for this critically endangered duck, a first major step toward saving it from extinction.

Days 1-3, October 15-17

Glyn Young (Durrell), Mark Roberts (WWT) and Nigel Jarrett (WWT) were due to arrive at the airport here today, but ran into a storm over Antananarivo and their pilot aborted the landing moments before touching down. Their plane then turned around and flew all the way back to Nairobi! This was rather poor timing as the thunderstorm was only in the area of Tana for a few hours and it was bad luck that it occurred just when the team’s plane, which was four hours late in departing Nairobi in the first place, was arriving. It was the first storm we have had in months. The team is now scheduled to arrive on Saturday. It is a good thing we have planned a bit of contingency time before we need to be lakeside to collect eggs as it looks like we are now going to need it! Meanwhile, Felix and I are quite busy here in Tana preparing for the trip to the lakes, including organising a joro at Bemanevika in order to ask the village ancestors for their permission to collect eggs from the lake.

Days 4-5, October 18-19

The U.K. team has finally arrived safely from Nairobi, and it is great to see Glyn and Nigel again, and to meet up with Mark (aka Sparky). We will miss Peter Cranswick this trip but he continues to play a crucial role organising things from the U.K. We all have a planning meeting together at the Durrell office here in Tana with our Madagascar Programme Director Richard Lewis. Spirits are high but we are all keen to get on the road and start making our way toward the lake and the nest with its precious contents. Felix receives some slightly troubling news that may potentially cause further serious delays. He has heard that a major bridge on the only road to Antsohihy is down and being repaired. The official report is that it will not be fixed until Wednesday, which will mean cutting things very close. If there are any delays in fixing the bridge we will not make it to the lake in time.

So, at this point we are starting to come up with Plans B, C and D which would involve ferrying all the equipment across the river by boat and hiring a vehicle on the other side to take all of us to Antsohihy. In Antsohihy we may be able to hire a 4 x 4 to take us up to the lake, but it sounds like we may even have to resort to oxcart or tractor which will turn an eight hour trip into a 24 hour one. We are all just hoping that the bridge will be fixed in time and we don’t have to resort to plan D! We decide the best thing to do is still to head off as planned and have a look at the bridge ourselves, so we can better decide what to do.