This is according to a study revealing that 96% of the chicks are dying at two to three weeks old. 

 

Conservationists say that human activity has driven the birds to one remaining wetland, but that that site has insufficient¹ food for the ducks.

 

The research is published in the journal Bird Conservation International.

 

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), which led the research, estimates that only 25 individual birds now remain in the wild. 

 

Human activity, including deforestation, farming and fishing, has destroyed their habitat to the point that this last population is now restricted to one wetland in north-east Madagascar - a complex of lakes near Bemanevika.

 

After the rediscovery of the species at this site in 2006, the WWT and its partners, including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Peregrine Fund, set up a conservation breeding programme and began to monitor the wild birds. 

 

Dr Geoff Hilton, head of species research at the WWT, said that with such a small number of birds, keeping a close eye on the population was straightforward². 

 

"We had about 10 or 11 females, [and] we were able to tell that most of those females were laying eggs, and those eggs were hatching," he told BBC News. 

 

But at the point when the ducklings were two to three weeks old, they would start disappearing.

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