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Species
Madagascar Pochard
species
via
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Lazarus taxon
- Parent taxon
- Aythya
- Image
- Madagascar Pochard, Captive Breeding Program, Madagascar 2.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- short name
- A. innotata
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Critically Endangered
- Commons category
- Aythya innotata
- taxon name
- Aythya innotata
- endemic to
- Madagascar
- egg incubation period
- 27
- litter size
- 8
- taxon common name
- Fotsimaso
- taxon range
- Africa
via Wikidata · CC0
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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.