Masked Finfoot is on critically endangered list

Masked Finfoot, an aquatic bird, resembling duck has been listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The IUCN includes the species in critically endangered category in April this year. The species is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

To be listed as critically endangered species there must be at least 50 percent probability of going extinct in the wild within over three generation in case of bird species.

Masked Finfoot has been listed as a critically endangered species by the IUCN on April 17, Shimanto Dipu, the Head of Biodiversity at the IUCN, Bangladesh office, confirmed it to The Business Post.

It is assumed that only 300 adults of the species are now living across the world. However the Sundarbans is the biggest habitat of this bird which needs to be protected to save the species from extinction, people involved in the |sector said.

The IUCN put threatened species into three categories - vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered. Critically endangered is just before the stage of extinction.

Dipu also said, “The Sundarbans is the largest habitat of Masked Finfoot. It is estimated that the Sundarbans is the habitat of 108-300 birds belonging to this species.

However, fishing net is the biggest threat to this bird. Another threat is hunter birds those that eat the eggs of Finfoot which is another reason for quick reduction in the number of Masked Finfoot, Dipu said.

A study published in the journal, Forktail: Journal of Asian Ornithology involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and Mahidol University, revealed that the population of the species may not exceed 304 adult individuals worldwide, a number far smaller than previously thought.

The Masked Finfoot was formerly considered endangered and declining with fragmented populations and fewer than 600-1,700 individuals in 2009.

Mr. Sayam Chowdhury, the recent paper’s lead author and a leading expert on the species, noted that Masked Finfoot may now only breed in Cambodia and Bangladesh.

“Our assessment of the species across its global distribution is grim. We found no recent records in Thailand and Malaysia. Our data suggests that the Finfoot is in greater danger of extinction than any other similarly sized water birds,” Sayam said on the IUCN website last year.

Apart from Bangladesh and Malaysia a few of them still exist in Cambodia, Lao, India and Nepal. But it is not seen generally.

Masked Finfoot has a long neck, a striking sharp beak and lobed feet which are green.

Both males and females have a black mask and eyebrow that contrasts with a white eye ring and lateral cervical stripe.

The rest of the neck is grey, the breast is pale and the back and wings and tail are a rich brown. The males have an all-black chin while the females have a white chin.