Boxes for brooding

Wild geese laying eggs in artificial wood boxes!

Although readers might be surprised by this development, for 15 years now, Sreemangal's Hail Haor Wildlife Sanctuary in Moulvibazar has been aiding the wild geese of Baikka Beel in this manner.

These artificial wooden boxes now serve as an effective "brooding" site, a phase where the mother goose sits on her eggs.

These geese hatched their eggs in the last days of monsoon in these boxes like the previous years, said Piar Ali, president of Baragangina Resource Management Organization.

"This is how the swampy Baikka Beel has benefitted from the man-made conservation initiative. Every year those boxes are renovated and restocked," he added.

By habit, the cotton pygmy goose, also called the cotton teal and locally known as the "balihash", builds its nest in an old tree. They may also adopt a quiet spot in abandoned houses waterside; even a monastery or temple will do.

Yet despite their adaptability, numbers have been in decline for a lack of suitable nesting sites, or at least they were in decline until breeding boxes were discretely added to the landscape.

These geese are long-time residents of Baikka Beel, said Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, divisional forest officer in Moulvibazar.

Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, site officer of Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS), said wild ducks laid eggs in seven wooden boxes this year.

A maximum of 15 and a minimum of 10 eggs were found in a box.

"Our team has conducted regular monitoring so the ducks can lay eggs without any issues," he said.

A total of 22 boxes were constructed as part of the Baikka Beel Fisheries Sanctuary project and placed at convenient nesting sites for wild ducks.

The first box was installed in 2006 by CNRS, which was the first artificial breeding site in Bangladesh.

In 2007, wild ducks started laying eggs there, ‍said Md Minnat Ali, member of Baragangina.

He said the projects in Baikka Beel are mostly supported by USAID.

Baikka Beel is a government-declared permanent fish sanctuary in Moulvibazar's Hail Haor.

The internationally acclaimed sanctuary has been instrumental in conserving fish production and species diversity and biodiversity in the haor.