Life does not stop at the end of the theme park season at Zoo Debrecen, where there is now a new Bernier duck, which is endangered in nature.
From the Zurich Zoo a recently arrived female duck has already taken possession of the flight area located in the neighborhood of the red pandas, and to the great joy of the caretakers, the team’s lone lad started courting him, so the zoo is confident in the subsequent successful reproduction.
The Bernier duck (Anas bernieri), endemic to the west coast of Madagascar, is a relatively small species of duck, which is presumably one of the isolates of the common white-throated duck in Australasia and was formed from its population. Its scientific and everyday name was given by the French doctor, Chevalier Bernier who lived in the 19th century. He liked to collect ducks during his trip to Madagascar. Because of their habitat loss due to logging, mining and hunting for food their population has decreased dramatically, so these ducks are classified as endangered. They are on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and were included in the Washington Convention (CITES) II. annex.
Fortunately, the species reproduces well under human care, so it has been preserved since the 1990s. Zoos play a prominent role in preservation; the first large-scale breeding program was launched by the Jersey Zoo. It is a real rarity in our country, as apart from the Debrecen Zoo, we can only meet them in another Hungarian zoo.
Debrecen Zoo
