Harteman Wildfowl Aviaries

History in aviculture

Jean Delacour describes the first avicultural experiences in Waterfowl of the World, Volume 3 (1959, p. 134-135):

Hartlaub's ducks are rare in captivity. The first specimen I ever saw alive was a female which lived at the Antwerp Zoo about 1930. Only one came to the Paris Zoo in 1932 and lived for some years in an aviary in the company of other ducks. The New York Zoo received two males and one female in 1949, brought by Charles Cordier from the Belgian Congo. They did well, but the males fought and had to be seperated. The pair never attempted to nest, but were harmless to other birds. A few reached the Wildfowl Trust collection from Sierra Leone in 1950. J. Yealland (Avic. Mag., 1951, p. 156) states about these birds: 'A little displaying goes on; the birds face each other and both describe circular movements of the head, the presumed male uttering a quiet high-pitched wheezing noise and the presumed female a low clucking. None of the 'rapid raucous cries' described by Bates has been heard.' They did not do well, one only surviving. Another four have recently been added to the Wildfowl Trust collection; three eggs were laid in spring of 1958; two hatched, but the young died after two days; a second clutch of nine eggs proved to be infertile. Bates kept a female and her nine chicks for some time at Bitye, Southern Cameroon, in 1910. The chicks could climb out of an old keg, clinging to the wood with their sharp claws, but this power of climbing ceased after a couple of days.
Hartlaub's ducks are beautiful birds and it is hoped they will some day breed in confinement.

 

Jean Delacour adds in Waterfowl of the World, Volume 4 (1964, p. 350-351):

Hartaub's ducks have bred succesfully at the Wildfowl Trust annually since 1959. S. T. Johnstone reports (Wildfowl Trust Annual Report, 1960, p. 12). 
(...) and Hartlaub's ducks are now fairly numerous in captivity. There are three pairs at Clères. They proved hardy, and only mildly quareelsome with other ducks. From observations made at Clères, the voice of the male is a weak whistle, that of the female is a harsh and loud cackle, both recalling those of the male and female common shelduck. 

 

Frank S. Todd describes in Waterfowl (1979, p. 258):

The occurance of Hartlaub's ducks in collections is very sporadic, particularly in America - although in recent years a few pairs have been imported from Europe (...) The first captive breeding in North America did not occur untill 1977. Some propagators don't trust them with other birds, and I am aware of one particularly nasty individual that attacked and killed a flamingo. 

Breeding (in-situ)

It is likely to breed between August and November, although this is not certain as no nest has ever been found in the wild (Scott and Rose 1996). The species is normally encountered dispersed in pairs or small groups during both the breeding and non-breeding seasons, but it is known to aggregate into larger flocks (> 30 birds) on open water whilst undergoing moult (Madge and Burn 1988). The species generally feeds nocturnally (Kear 2005b), its diet consisting of aquatic invertebrates (insects, arachnids, crustaceans and molluscs), seeds and roots (F. Dowsett-Lemaire in litt.1999, del Hoyo et al. 1992). No nest has ever been found in the wild, however observations from captive populations suggest that nest sites are most likely to be in tree holes and hollow trees or occasionally on the ground amongst dense cover (Madge and Burn 1988, Kear 2005).

Threats

The primary threat to this species is habitat loss due to forest destruction (Scott and Rose 1996). Other threats include hunting, increases in slash-and-burn cultivation, water pollution from mining and poison-fishing, and hydrological changes owing to logging (Holbech 1992, Holbech 1996, W. R .J. Dean in litt. 1999). However, in Cameroon and Nigeria, it appears to survive even in very disturbed areas (P. Hall in litt. 1999, M. Languy in litt. 2000, H. Rainey in litt. 2003) and the Central Africa populations are not considered to be threatened (F. Dowsett-Lemaire and R. Dowsett in litt. 2005). The species is hunted and traded at traditional medicine markets in Nigeria (Nikolaus 2001).