In search of the Madagascar pochard: the world's rarest duck - Part 4

Day 7 - 26th July
Miraculously, Bruno and Iandry have fixed the 4WD, here in the middle of nowhere. It would have taken weeks and many hundreds of pounds to fix this back in “civilization”. We make it to the nearest small village of Bemenavika in 15 minutes, a journey that took 2 hours on the way up.

Even though it was such a short visit, every minute was intense and it feels very odd to be leaving the lake and Pochard behind. There is a sense of loss as we pull away, watching the “dots” down below on this beautiful lake ringed by forest.

We make it down to Bealanana in 3 hours flat. It has been a highly successful and informative journey as it provides a realistic idea of the extreme road conditions we will need to deal with when for transporting eggs or recent hatchlings. Keeping in mind that it this trip was made during the dry season, and the transfer is planned for the wet season when the roads will be even worse! We will prepare for the worst and be prepared for a full day of travel. Nigel suggests we will likely want to incubate birds using portable incubators and batteries on site and then transfer them down to Antsohihiy after they have pipped internally and/or immediately after hatching, which is when they would normally be resting and relying on yolk sac for nourishment.

Although this trip was an unqualified success from all accounts, we are now gearing up full speed for the real work later this year, the collection of young from the wild and the construction of a captive breeding facility in situ. Amongst our partnership, we have the ability to save the Madagascar Pochard from extinction, now it is just a matter of getting it done together.