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Species
Madagascar Pochard
species
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Encyclopedic overview
The Madagascar pochard or Madagascan pochard (Aythya innotata; Malagasy: Fotsy maso, Onjo) is an extremely rare diving duck of the genus Aythya. Thought to be extinct in the late 1990s, specimens of the species were rediscovered at Lake Matsaborimena near Bemanevika in Madagascar in 2006. By 2017, a captive breeding program had produced a population of around 90 individuals. The birds were reintroduced to the wild in December 2018.
The Madagascar pochard feeds mainly on aquatic insects, unlike other diving ducks in the same genus, The population is small, fluctuating around 25 individuals, and mainly utilises two small volcanic lakes in the far north of Madagascar.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Madagascar Pochard” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.