World's rarest ducklings Madagascan pochards hatch

Eighteen Madagascan pochards - the world's most endangered duck - have hatched in a captive breeding centre. 

This brings the world population of the ducks to just 60.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the groups leading the captive breeding programme, say this "builds hope that the bird can be saved from extinction".

The precious pochards are being reared at a specially built centre in Antsohihy, Madagascar.

The ducks were thought to have become extinct in the late 1990s, but were rediscovered in 2006, when conservationists on an expedition spotted just 22 birds at a single site - Lake Matsaborimena (or Red Lake), in northern Madagascar.         Full Read