Diving Duck Rediscovered
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 16th, 2007
Thought extinct, with the “last one” reportedly being seen in 1991, the Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata), was rediscovered last month, according to a BBC News report published in January 2007. This diving duck had been given up as long gone by most ornithologists.
A group of conservationists from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust discovered a group of at least 25 pochards while searching for a rare hawk.
Glyn Young, of the Durrell Trust, has been searching for the duck, Aythya innotata, since 1989. His passion for the quest is so intense he named his eldest daughter Aythya.
The finding is extremely exciting. It was incredible. Some of the chicks could only just have hatched. The Madagascar pochard is extremely secretive and little is known about its life cycle and behaviour. It was believed that they preferred marshy lakes with lots of reeds and emergent vegetation but the newly discovered population was found in a steep-sided volcanic lake with little shoreline marsh and reeds.Glyn Young, ornithologist
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Another triumph in the face of adversity. Gotta love that mother nature eh?! Really great news. I love hearing about these supposed extinct animals being found alive and well. Maybe there’s hope for us all yet?
Wonderful news!
Maybe the next rediscovery will be the Passenger Pigeon. Wouldn’t that be great?
Ahh, Passenger Pigeons, such a beautiful bird. One can only hope, but I think that quite unlikely. More likely would be the Carolina Parakeet, with good evidence now that it survived well into the 1930’s in the south. That’s near enough in time to be plausible.
Has anyone noticed that there’s been a lot of rediscoveries lately? If I didn’t know better, I’d think some time traveller was procuring specimens from the past and dropping them off in the present day…I know that’s one of the things I’d be doing, if I had access to temporal travel.
I love the idea of naming people after endangered and extinct animals…it’s a somber and solemn way to remember them, if nothing else. Not sure I’d ever name a kid Ectopistes, Dinornis, or Hydrodamalis, though…Maybe a middle name? On the other hand, Raphus, Thylacine, and Thylacoleo all have potential…
Hmmm…. Thylacina … what a pretty name for a little girl.
Great find, someone please take dna samples just to make sure it doesn’t disappear again.