Small wonder

A female cotton pygmy goose sweeps over Hazarikhil Wildlife Sanctuary in Chattogram’s Fatikchhari. One of the world’s smallest waterfowl, the species ranges across South and Southeast Asia to northern Australia. It favours freshwater lakes, ponds and wetlands rich in floating and emergent vegetation, roosting and nesting in tree hollows near water. Feeding at the surface, it eats aquatic plants, seeds, insects, molluscs, crustaceans and small fish, helping move nutrients through wetland food webs. A strong, agile flier, it can lift directly from water without a running start. Though listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN, the species faces wetland loss and alteration, pollution, pesticides, hunting and loss of nesting trees.
 

PHOTO: AHSAN UDDIN CHOWDHURY

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