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Local expert's jungle search for endangered bird

 

An expert from Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge is to spend four weeks in the jungle searching for signs of a critically endangered bird.

The Madagascar pochard was widely thought to be extinct until late last year when a small number were sighted at a remote lake. James Lees, reserve warden at WWT Slimbridge Wetlands Centre will join a team from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Madagascar, where they will scour other sites where the endangered birds might be found.

The trip is the latest chapter in WWT's long history of helping endangered wildfowl around the world. WWT's research work is supported by WWT members and visitors. Successes include saving the Hawaiian nene and protecting the Greenland white fronted goose.

James Lees sets off today. Looking forward to the trip, he said "It's going to be really exciting. We'll be out in the jungle for weeks at a time, searching remote lakes for signs of the birds. Pochards are diving ducks and the Madagascar species has suffered very badly from habitat loss. Indeed, until last year they had been assumed to be extinct. If we can find more sites with birds, it could be a turnaround in fate for the Madagascar pochard."

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