'Mother' hen helps hatch 8 mandarin ducks in Hubei

However, early on April 30, she noticed the mother duck had left to forage but never returned. "It may have met a natural predator," she said.

After consulting experts, they decided to move the eggs out and borrowed a hen from a farmer to incubate them. "The size of a mandarin duck's egg is similar to that of a chicken egg, so the hen, driven by its instinct to incubate, didn't refuse to do the job," said Jing Shunhua, deputy director of the wild animals and plants protection station in Yuan'an.

On May 12, eight healthy baby birds hatched. Because of the large temperature fluctuations during day and night, the park set aside a constant-temperature room to take care of them.

"Later, we placed an inflatable baby pool in the room and conducted daily water adaptation exercises," Jing said.

On June 12, the one-month-old ducklings began wilderness training in a simulated natural habitat at Dayan Forest Farm. Through intensive adaptive drills such as aquatic activities and wild foraging, their swimming speed, foodlocating ability (demonstrated by circling designated areas multiple times), and regulated routines (gathering on rocks in the pool at night) improved significantly, according to Jing.

"With an average weight of about 220 grams, they developed a solid foundation for survival in the wild," he said, adding that shortly after hatching, they flapped vigorously, brimming with energy.