Conserving Waterfowl

Listen to how Jan Harteman safeguards endangered water birds by breeding them in his own backyard!

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Monday, December 11, 2023

19:00-21:15

Utrecht

Utrecht University, Victor J. Koningsberger Building, Room KBG-224

Budapestlaan 4a-b, 3584 CD

Event Report

On 11 December Jan Harteman travelled to Utrecht to give a lecture on the conservation of endangered waterfowl. Jan is a passionate ornithologist and teacher at Aeres MBO Barneveld. In the late 1990s, he started Harteman Wildfowl, an organization aimed at breeding endangered waterfowl for conservation purposes, all from his own backyard. We started the evening at 7, and a group of 12 enthusiastic students attended. The evening was kicked off by a short quiz consisting of 5 questions to introduce attended to the subject and to test their current knowledge.

Jan started his lecture by telling us a bit about himself and showed through pictures how the breeding of waterfowl in his backyard has expended over the years. There are several species Jan works with such as the white-winged duck, madagascar teal, bear's Pochard, south georgia pintail, and magpie goose. For each species he explained his reasons for keeping them, the problems they face in their natural habitat, the difficulties in breeding and keeping the species in captivity, and how each species ended up in captivity with him. Jan’s aim for keeping these species is to maintain a healthy population so they can be outplaced for other breeding programs and help keep the species alive.

After the break Jan continued his lecture with a story about one of his white-winged wood duck females. This female went to a zoo in Singapore where they have a breeding program with the aim of creating a stable population which then can be released in large parts of Asia. Another story he told was about crossing two completely unrelated species in his aviary (a chiloé wigoen and a Philippine duck). Jan explained that in the chiloé wigoen and Philippine duck  are both monochromatic species, meaning that males and females have the same colouring. Offspring of this crossing however were sexually dichromatic, so males and females had different coloration (read the paper he published about this here: https://edepot.wur.nl/558751).

We finished the evening with another quiz to test how much attendees had learned. The three highest scores won The Handbook for Identification of Waterfowl by Frank S. Todd. We thanked Jan for providing us with a fascinating lecture with a wooden statue of a duckling to add to his waterfowl collection.

By Samantha Mager

About Event

Jan Harteman is a passionate ornithologist and teacher at Aeres MBO Barneveld. In the late 1990s, he started Harteman Wildfowl, an organization aimed at breeding endangered waterfowl for conservation purposes, all from his own backyard. What started out as a hobby grew into a lifelong passion for waterfowl and their conservation, contributing to knowledge, education and conservation of these special birds.

In his lecture, Jan will tell you all about his personal mission, what waterfowl exactly are and what it entails to breed them in huge aviaries in your own backyard!

The evening will be preceded and concluded by a fun educational quiz about waterfowl. After Jan's lecture, there will also be some time for asking questions and for a discussion of the topic.

Snacks and drinks will be provided. Bringing your own cup would be highly appreciated.

Program:

18:45 Doors open

19:00 Introductory quiz and start lecture

20:10 Break

20:25 Q&A

20:50 Final quiz

21:15 End lecture

Published on Nov 11, 2023

Published on Nov 11, 2023

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Passion. inspiration. Conservation.

FFN Academy is a national network of students and young graduates with a passion for nature conservation.

Future For Nature Academy © 2023

Webdesign by Mathijs Megens

Passion. inspiration. Conservation.

FFN Academy is a national network of students and young graduates with a passion for nature conservation.

Future For Nature Academy © 2023

Webdesign by Mathijs Megens