As it sometimes goes with waterfowl, our first clutch of Australian shelduck eggs were mostly infertile except for one egg; this little guy hatched on January 23 but required some assistance in doing so. Assisted hatching takes patience and extreme caution but was critical in this instance. After being kept in isolation with supplemental care and prophylactic treatments, now, at 5 days old, this duckling has fully absorbed his yolk sac and is doing great, growing more and more by the day in the company of his two Puna teal brooder mates! Though not out of the woods quite yet, I feel better about him each passing day. Kudos to our amazing staff for giving this duckling a fighting chance!