Mission to save the diving duck

A paddling of ducks in Gloucestershire will spend the next 10 days in a floating aviary in an effort to save one of their cousins – the Madagascar pochard.

As part of a trial to save the rarest duck species in the world, conservationists at the Slimbridge Wetland Centre have built a custom home that could ease the ducks’ transition from captivity into the wild.

The ducks will be housed in the aviaries for five to 10 days while they adjust to their surroundings. Once they are comfortable, conservationists will open a door to allow them to come and go as they please, during which time they will be tagged and monitored.

So far, no attempt to reintroduce a diving duck species into the wild has been successful. If the floating aviary succeeds, the same method will be used to release the Madagascar pochard back into the wild in 2018. Samantha Herbert