by Mike Lubbock and Nancy Drilling
May 5, 2004
Page 1 : WWD Captive Breeding Program
By Mike Lubbock, Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Center
Living deep in the shady rain forests in the Sumatra provinces of Indonesia is one of the rarest ducks in the world—the White-winged Duck (Cairina scutulata). Its natural habitat is rapidly disappearing as agricultural fields replace the forest streams and marshes this endangered bird needs to live.
The White-winged Duck is a rather large bird with a dark brown, almost black, body and white patches on the wings which are most easily seen when the birds extend their wings for flight. They also have a white head and neck, which is often densely spotted with black. They feed mostly at night, eating seeds and aquatic plants and also insects, larva, worms, small fish and frogs. They spend most of the day in the shade of tall trees in order to avoid sunlight.
WWD Captive Breeding Program
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) has included the White-winged Duck on its Red List of Endangered Species due to the loss of suitable habitat and rapidly declining population in the wild. In addition, the AZA (American Zoo and Aquarium Association) has provided the White-winged Duck with a Species Survival Plan (SSP).
I have been involved for many years in helping assure the future of the White-winged Duck through a preservation technique called a Captive Breeding Program. As the name implies, birds are kept in man-made aviaries, designed to provide all the natural elements needed by the specific species in order to breed. These elements include the proper type and amount of vegetation, food and water.
The offspring that result from the breeding process are reared to sexual maturity and are either kept at our facility (if there’s room) or sent to another suitable place, such as a zoo, so that additional offspring can be produced. These programs are extremely valuable in increasing the number of rare and endangered birds when the wild population is losing ground. Whenever possible, we work with field researchers and conservation groups to release the birds raised at our facility into a natural habitat that is preserved for the birds and other animals. Unfortunately, this type of release does not happen very often, but at least the birds maintained at the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Center or other zoos are available to be seen and enjoyed by people who might otherwise never have the opportunity to do so.
It became clear to conservationists as far back as the late 1960s that the White-winged Duck’s wild rainforest habitat was shrinking at a rate that posed a major threat to the birds’ survivability. Part of the problem is that a White-winged Duck pair require as much as 250 acres of exclusive territory for proper breeding to occur. That is an enormous amount of rainforest area for just two birds of a species to occupy. The initial captive breeding program began in 1970 at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge, England. At that time, I was Curator of Birds at the WWT, and was involved in the White-winged Duck project.
The original breeding pairs came from birds that were hand-reared from eggs collected in the wild. Taking fertile eggs from wild nests has much less of a negative impact on the wild population than does capturing live birds. This technique has been used many times over the last 35 years to establish a breeding program for rare and endangered birds. After the several years of breeding in England, the captive population of White-winged Ducks was large enough to loan birds to other well-known breeders and zoos. Some birds went to the Jersey Zoo in England, and a breeding flock was eventually established in the United States at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
After moving to North Carolina from England to build my own collection of waterfowl, I soon had an opportunity to acquire White-winged Ducks from the National Zoo. Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Center soon became the primary breeding site for this endangered bird. Our breeding preserve owns all of the White-winged Ducks in the United States, including those on loan to zoos and private collections, such as the Akron Zoo, Miami MetroZoo, North Carolina Zoological Park and the White Oaks Plantation.
Next Page : August 2004 Update from Sylvan Heights
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
View printer-friendly version
