Conservationists are celebrating the first successful steps in an attempt to save the world's rarest duck - the Madagascar pochard - from extinction

Conservationists are celebrating the first successful steps in an attempt to save the world's rarest duck from extinction.

Fewer than 20 Madagascar pochard are believed to be living on just one lake in the wild.

The critically endangered duck is so rare that it was declared extinct in the late 1990s until scientists found a few of the birds by chance during a trip to Madagascar in 2006.

To stop the beautiful cinnamon-coloured diving duck slipping permanently into extinction a team of bird specialists devised a conservation plan.

They were hoping to collect some of the pochards' eggs, incubate them and raise the ducklings via a conservation breeding programme. But an emergency rescue plan was mounted ahead of schedule after a visit in July revealed the situation was worse than feared - with just six females seen and evidence that young had died when only a few weeks old.

Last month the team embarked on a journey to the isolated and difficult to reach lake in northern Madagascar where the birds had been seen. Luckily the team returned with a clutch of eggs of which eight hatched into ducklings. The tiny ducks are now being hand reared in captivity, at a site in Madagascar.

It is hoped that the conservation programme will result in enough ducks being born in captivity that sustainable numbers can one day be released back into their original habitat.

The programme was run by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), The Peregrine Fund and the Government of Madagascar. Peter Cranswick from WWT said: "This is conservation at the cutting edge.

"The urgency of the situation has meant a great deal of invention and improvisation - but next year simply may have been too late. Safely bringing birds into captivity marks the start of a 20 or 30-year conservation project that will also help restore wetlands across the region."

The ducklings are reported to be doing very well, and the team are now attempting to secure two more clutches from the wild over the next few weeks. Peter Cranswick added: "There was no question we needed to act to save the Madagascar pochard from extinction. Its decline is due to human activity and only we have the power to reverse that."