Posted on: Friday, May 20, 2005

Hope and a hatchling alive at Midway refuge

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

The first duckling has hatched from a group of rare Laysan ducks that were brought to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in October as part of a plan to ensure survival of the endangered species.

The duckling hatched Monday from a clutch of eight eggs, six of which were fertile, said wildlife biologist John Klavitter of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said the baby duck has been closely following its mother around and is doing well.

"We are so amazed," Klavitter said yesterday. "I've worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service for 11 years, and this is the highlight of my career."

Wildlife biologists have been very cautious about approaching the pair during their crucial bonding period, so they have not yet taken photographs of the duckling, he said.

Two other ducklings hatched from the same nest but died. Klavitter said the mother duck is young and inexperienced at brooding. When she laid her first egg, the duck began incubating it instead of waiting to lay all her eggs and incubating them for the same length of time so they would hatch together.

When the first duckling appeared, the mother abandoned the nest to begin raising her single offspring, leaving no one to care for later arrivals, he said.

Scientists hope the Midway population of Laysan ducks will expand even more, if eggs from three other nests successfully hatch. Laysan ducks have a 30-day incubation period, so ducklings could start appearing at two of the nests sometime next week.

Klavitter said eggs in a nest discovered May 13 could hatch in approximately three weeks.

Six of the 20 ducks brought to Midway from Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were female, and now four have nested.

The bird, whose scientific name is Anas laysanesis, is one of only two endemic duck species still found in Hawai'i; the other is the Hawaiian duck, or koloa. Laysan ducks are 15 to 17 inches long, and are brown with bright blue-green to purple coloring on their secondary wing feathers. They have white rings around the eyes, and orange legs and feet.

Before the Midway population was established, the birds existed only on Laysan, where they number 400 to 600.

Wildlife biologists with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey hope to repeat the Midway transfer in October by capturing 30 young ducks on Laysan and bringing them to Midway's Eastern Island. The first group was taken to the refuge's Sand Island.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.