Workshop urges action to protect critically endangered duck

Few people have heard of the Baer's pochard, a duck that at first glance resembles the mallards readily seen around Beijing.

There are fewer than 1,000 of the migratory, diving ducks living in the wild, making them rarer than the giant panda, and the Baer's pochard has been classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2012.

Even fewer people know that the Hengshui Lake National Nature Reserve in Hebei province, about 250 kilometers southwest of Beijing, is home to the world's biggest known population of Baer's pochards - with 309 individuals recorded on March 8 last year - making it vital to their survival in the wild.