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World's Rarest Bird, Madagascar Pochard, Gets New Home (bbc.com)
The rarest bird in the world -- a species of duck called the Madagascar pochard -- has been given a new home in time for the new year. From a report: An international team of researchers released 21 of the birds at a lake in the north of Madagascar. It is a step towards the recovery of a species that just over a decade ago was thought to be extinct. Rescuing the species could also be a first step in protecting Madagascar's threatened wetlands. When it wasn't seen for 15 years, the Madagascar pochard was believed to have been wiped out completely. Then a tiny group of the birds was rediscovered in 2006 at one remote lake. These were the last 25 Madagascar pochards on the planet. Wetland habitats in the country have been so polluted and damaged that these few remaining birds had been forced into this last untouched area.
If this bird were tasty, people would probably cultivate it and take care of it. Cows and chickens are scarcely in any danger of going extinct after all. Animals that are useful to humans in some way tend to thrive.
Yup. If they thought they were extinct, then found a flock... it can be reasonably assumed there aren’t a lot of them left. But the fact that one flock escaped detection for 15 years does leave open the possibility that at least one other flock might also exist.
#DeleteChrome
50 is far below the 'viable' level and attempting to rescue such a species is unlikely to succeed.
This was true before DNA splicing was developed, but not anymore. A flock of 25 may lack sufficient genetic diversity, but we can splice in more variety by sequencing feathers in museum collections, or even from related species.