Sunday, April 8, 2012

Don't Call It A Comeback (Yet)




Without a doubt, the rarest birds I've ever seen were Laysan Ducks (hen on nest, above, on Sand Island), who are confined to Laysan Island and Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. I'm not sure what their population is right now, but I think it's safe to say that it is less than 1,000 individuals.

Pretty rare right? But despite dwelling on the brink of extinction, there are 2 duck species with smaller populations; Campbell Teal, and even more scarce, the Madagascar Pochard. In some good news, for the first time the world's rarest duck has bred in captivity, which means the possibility of a comeback is exponentially higher than just a few weeks ago. Rejoice!

5 comments:

  1. This is good news, I just hope that they can be brought back from the edge of extinction and flourish.

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    1. I wonder why all the worlds rarest ducks are so drab. Now someone just needs to rediscover Pink-headed Duck...

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  2. Interesting though I'm curious how they plan to create an environment for them where they won't starve to death... Also, I'm curious how you managed such a giant typo in such a short post.

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    1. Well, they were much more widely distributed originally, so they would have to find some good habitat to set aside from hunters and developers. Their last lake doesnt sound very good.

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