Volunteers preserving elusive diving ducks

Lu Qun, a power worker in Wuhan, Hubei province, is both the designer and most devoted guardian of a wetland refuge for the endangered Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri), a diving duck found in eastern Asia.

With the approach of southern China's rainy season, a dozen circular earthen platforms stand above the water in a wetland in Huangpi district, on the outskirts of Wuhan, rising like tiny islands. Built by Lu and other wetland conservation volunteers, the platforms are new homes for the critically endangered species, designed to keep their nests safe from flooding.

The Baer's pochard, an inland freshwater duck with a black head and neck that usually shows a green sheen, is found mainly in China. Habitat loss and heavy hunting have severely impacted its numbers.

Crouching beside one of the platforms, Lu said the nests will remain dry when the rains come. Once grass is planted, the birds can use them immediately upon arrival, staying hidden and secure.

Before the rainy season, Lu and his colleagues at the Wuhan branch of the State Grid conducted daily inspections of power lines around the wetland to keep pump stations running and water levels stable. His connection with the ducks began during one of those routine checks in 2014 when he spotted several ducks that looked unusual. He photographed them and sent the images to experts.

The reply stunned him and filled him with joy. They were Baer's pochards, a critically endangered species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with only a few hundred left in China at the time.

"There were so few left," Lu said. "I thought that if I met them, I had to take good care of them."

Ma Liqiang, deputy director of the wetland nature reserve administration in Huangpi, remembers the excitement of receiving Lu's photos.

"We immediately organized experts to verify them," Ma said. "It was confirmed as Baer's pochards, already settled and laying eggs. The discovery was highly significant. It pushed the species' breeding range 900 kilometers south, making Wuhan the species' southernmost breeding place."

The celebration soon gave way to a tougher problem. The Baer's pochard breeds from April to July, exactly when Wuhan enters its plum rain and flooding season. The birds build nests on the water, but rising waters can quickly wash them away, leaving few duckling survivors.

"Watching them build nests every year, only to see them washed away, was heartbreaking," Lu said.

But soon he had an idea. As a worker who spends his days dealing with poles and transformers, Lu wondered whether power engineering could offer a solution. If equipment could be built to withstand flooding, could bird nests do the same?

The idea won support from reserve officials and experts at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Drawing on flood-resistant engineering, they refined the design through repeated trials and developed the earthen platforms now rising above the water.

The platforms work with pump stations to keep nests safely above the flood line.

In 2024, the first trial batch had barely been completed before the birds moved in.

"We didn't expect them to be so popular," Lu said with a grin. "Last year we launched the project with the reserve, and this year we had to prepare all the new homes before International Bird Day on April 1 and the rainy season, so the birds could move in as soon as they arrived. The nests must not be flooded, and the pump stations cannot stop either. Every time I inspect the lines, check the water level and look over the equipment, I feel a little more at ease."

Since Lu discovered the first Baer's pochard nest in Wuhan in 2014, the number of the birds seen in the city has risen to more than one-sixth of the national total, the highest among China's megacities.

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the nationwide population of the duck has swelled to over 2,500 — more than double its population in 2012.

Ma said the progress shows the value of collective conservation, adding: "Protecting biodiversity takes countless ordinary people like Lu. They turn care into habit and persistence into daily life, with government, experts, volunteers and enterprises all working together."

Contact the writers at liuboqian@chinadaily.com.cn