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Wildlife conservation: World's rarest ducks, the Madagascar pochard, breed in the wild
Image source, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust/PA Wire
The world's rarest ducks have bred in the wild.
Conservationists have been working on a project to try and establish a new population of Madagascar pochards and it's happened sooner than expected!
A total of 12 ducklings have now been spotted.
It was thought the water birds had become extinct, but then 20 of them were discovered by chance on a small remote lake in 2006.
Image source, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust/PA Wire
Their eggs were then taken in and looked after in a special breeding centre, before the birds were released a year later into Lake Sofia in the north of the African island.
The birds must be settling in to their new home as they've had ducklings only a year after being released back into the wild - usually diving ducks breed for the first time at two years old.
Much of northern Madagascar's wetlands are severely degraded though because of human activity such as agriculture. This means the ducklings will have some challenges ahead, for example finding food.