In the Pantanal, the species is considered rare and of isolated occurrence. It is migratory, probably originating from the Bolivia Chaco. The main threats to the species in the floodplain Pantanal are the loss of wintering sites due to climate change and changes in flood pulses that will be promoted by the implementation of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway project.
At the Barba Azul Nature Reserve, located within Bolivia’s Beni Savanna ecoregion, the Orinoco Goose was historically observed in large numbers and successfully bred in artificial nestboxes installed across the reserve. However, over the past five years, sightings of the species have significantly declined, and none of the nestboxes are currently being used for nesting. The cause of this decline is uncertain. It may be linked to the return of large native predators following our habitat restauration and protection program, potentially increasing predation pressure, or to the recovery of denser vegetation as cattle grazing has been reduced, which could have altered the open habitat structure that the species prefers. These hypotheses remain unconfirmed due to the lack of targeted research.
Satellite telemetry data from Lisa Davenport has demonstrated that Orinoco Geese undertake local and seasonal movements. One individual tagged at Barba Azul was tracked to the Mamoré River estuary east from Barba Azul, where it remained for an extended period in oxbow lake habitats, suggesting that the species depends on a network of habitats across a broad landscape.
In addition to these localized concerns, large-scale habitat loss poses a growing threat. Climate change is projected to significantly affect the Beni Savanna, which constitutes the most important Orinoco Goose habitat in Bolivia. Furthermore, the new Land Use Reform Plan for Beni proposes converting approximately 83% of natural grasslands and marsh ecosystems into agricultural land. If implemented, this would result in a substantial loss of suitable habitat and likely have a major negative impact on the Orinoco Goose population. Given these escalating threats, the lack of current breeding at historically active sites, and the absence of reliable population trend data, continued monitoring is urgently needed. Any future reassessment of the species’ conservation status should carefully consider both site-specific and landscape-level pressures, which may not yet be fully captured in existing data.
In Colombia Llanos, regions, the alluvial overflow plain savannas located in the Casanare and Arauca departments, are the main hábitat of the Orinoco goose. Since 2012 we conducted census of Orinoco goose in the only nine IBAs situated in the Casanare department covering about 92,000 hectares (https://calidris.org.co/maps/).
The Llanos region is the area with the greatest abundance of the Orinoco goose in Colombia—and likely in South America (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/491/49140739010.pdf ). During the breeding season, the Orinoco goose is a species that gathers in large numbers near lagoons with riparian forests between December and April, a period that coincides with the dry season in the Llanos. The congregation of individuals in specific sites during the breeding season is an ideal time to conduct counts of this bird species at the IBAs. A very preliminar analysis of the population of the Orinoco goose at the IBA Reservas de la Vereda Altagracia using data from 2015 to 2025, excluding years with extreme outlier values (2017 and 2023), indicates a pattern of moderate fluctuations with a gradual long-term decline. The population peaked in 2016 (8,500 individuals) and again in 2019 (6,000), but has since stabilized at lower levels. A comparison between 2015 and 2025 reveals a net decline of about 20%, indicating ongoing pressure on the species. We have more data of other IBAs in Casanare department but the Reservas de la vereda Altagracia is the IBA with the highest numbers of individuals during dry season. The data suggest that while recovery is possible, the overall population remains below earlier levels, likely due to cumulative environmental impacts such as habitat transformation and agricultural expansion in key wetland and savanna areas.
Precisely, the alluvial overflow plain savannas located in the departments of Arauca and Casanare are predicted to be the savanna ecosystems most affected by pasture and oil palm plantation expansion. The expansion of crops has been widely promoted in the the alluvial overflow plain savannas over the past decade, and vast areas previously used for livestock are now occupied by oil palm and rice crops. According to the most recent rice census, the cultivated area of rice in the Orinoquia region was 167,457 hectares in 2013, a figure that increased to 273,002 hectares in 2023. Specifically in this region, the department of Casanare went from 93,878 hectares cultivated in 2013 to 187,789 hectares in 2023. It is worth noting that three IBAs falls under the jurisdiction of the municipalities of Trinidad and Paz de Ariporo in Casanare, which have shown significant increases in their areas dedicated to rice cultivation. In 2013, the cultivated area of rice in Trinidad was 9,571 hectares, which rose to 14,888 hectares in 2023—a similar situation occurred in Paz de Ariporo, where the rice cultivation area increased from 5,467 hectares in 2013 to 35,960 hectares in 2023. This makes Casanare the leading rice producer in the country (DANE 2023).
During the period from 2014 to 2020, more than 545,000 hectares of savannas were converted to agricultural land use, primarily for exotic pastures for livestock, followed by crops (either temporary or perennial herbaceous) and forest plantations. These transitions represented 3.7% of the altillanura savanna area and 6.2% of the the alluvial overflow plain savannas area at the beginning of the period.
By 2030, an additional transformation of 537,000 hectares of forests and 820,000 hectares of savannas into productive uses is anticipated, mainly in the piedmont and floodable savannas (Álvarez et al., 2023).
In Paraguay the species is considered a vagrant, with just two documented records and one additional report, and as such its conservation status has not been formally assessed (on the national Red List).
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 25 April 2025. We will now analyse and interpret the information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this species’ Red List category on this page on 25 April 2025, when discussions will re-open.
We thank those who took the time to comment on this initial proposal, particularly the detailed information shared by T. Boorsma and C. Ruiz-Guerra. This information, pertaining to Bolivia and Colombia, provides evidence of ongoing declines in these states. However, these declines are to some degree offset by the situation in Brazil, where the population is probably stable or increasing. The assessment here considers the species’ global risk of extinction. A global decline of 1-19% over the past three generations (combining all national trends) is still regarded as accurate. Accordingly, the species still does not meet or approach the thresholds for listing as threatened under any IUCN Red List Criteria.
Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2025 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classification outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 4 May 2025, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2025 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in October 2025, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments. We will analyse and interpret the information, and a final decision on this species’ Red List category will be posted on this page on 12 May 2025.
In the Pantanal, the species is considered rare and of isolated occurrence. It is migratory, probably originating from the Bolivia Chaco. The main threats to the species in the floodplain Pantanal are the loss of wintering sites due to climate change and changes in flood pulses that will be promoted by the implementation of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway project.
At the Barba Azul Nature Reserve, located within Bolivia’s Beni Savanna ecoregion, the Orinoco Goose was historically observed in large numbers and successfully bred in artificial nestboxes installed across the reserve. However, over the past five years, sightings of the species have significantly declined, and none of the nestboxes are currently being used for nesting. The cause of this decline is uncertain. It may be linked to the return of large native predators following our habitat restauration and protection program, potentially increasing predation pressure, or to the recovery of denser vegetation as cattle grazing has been reduced, which could have altered the open habitat structure that the species prefers. These hypotheses remain unconfirmed due to the lack of targeted research.
Satellite telemetry data from Lisa Davenport has demonstrated that Orinoco Geese undertake local and seasonal movements. One individual tagged at Barba Azul was tracked to the Mamoré River estuary east from Barba Azul, where it remained for an extended period in oxbow lake habitats, suggesting that the species depends on a network of habitats across a broad landscape.
In addition to these localized concerns, large-scale habitat loss poses a growing threat. Climate change is projected to significantly affect the Beni Savanna, which constitutes the most important Orinoco Goose habitat in Bolivia. Furthermore, the new Land Use Reform Plan for Beni proposes converting approximately 83% of natural grasslands and marsh ecosystems into agricultural land. If implemented, this would result in a substantial loss of suitable habitat and likely have a major negative impact on the Orinoco Goose population. Given these escalating threats, the lack of current breeding at historically active sites, and the absence of reliable population trend data, continued monitoring is urgently needed. Any future reassessment of the species’ conservation status should carefully consider both site-specific and landscape-level pressures, which may not yet be fully captured in existing data.
In Colombia Llanos, regions, the alluvial overflow plain savannas located in the Casanare and Arauca departments, are the main hábitat of the Orinoco goose. Since 2012 we conducted census of Orinoco goose in the only nine IBAs situated in the Casanare department covering about 92,000 hectares (https://calidris.org.co/maps/).
The Llanos region is the area with the greatest abundance of the Orinoco goose in Colombia—and likely in South America (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/491/49140739010.pdf ). During the breeding season, the Orinoco goose is a species that gathers in large numbers near lagoons with riparian forests between December and April, a period that coincides with the dry season in the Llanos. The congregation of individuals in specific sites during the breeding season is an ideal time to conduct counts of this bird species at the IBAs. A very preliminar analysis of the population of the Orinoco goose at the IBA Reservas de la Vereda Altagracia using data from 2015 to 2025, excluding years with extreme outlier values (2017 and 2023), indicates a pattern of moderate fluctuations with a gradual long-term decline. The population peaked in 2016 (8,500 individuals) and again in 2019 (6,000), but has since stabilized at lower levels. A comparison between 2015 and 2025 reveals a net decline of about 20%, indicating ongoing pressure on the species. We have more data of other IBAs in Casanare department but the Reservas de la vereda Altagracia is the IBA with the highest numbers of individuals during dry season. The data suggest that while recovery is possible, the overall population remains below earlier levels, likely due to cumulative environmental impacts such as habitat transformation and agricultural expansion in key wetland and savanna areas.
Precisely, the alluvial overflow plain savannas located in the departments of Arauca and Casanare are predicted to be the savanna ecosystems most affected by pasture and oil palm plantation expansion. The expansion of crops has been widely promoted in the the alluvial overflow plain savannas over the past decade, and vast areas previously used for livestock are now occupied by oil palm and rice crops. According to the most recent rice census, the cultivated area of rice in the Orinoquia region was 167,457 hectares in 2013, a figure that increased to 273,002 hectares in 2023. Specifically in this region, the department of Casanare went from 93,878 hectares cultivated in 2013 to 187,789 hectares in 2023. It is worth noting that three IBAs falls under the jurisdiction of the municipalities of Trinidad and Paz de Ariporo in Casanare, which have shown significant increases in their areas dedicated to rice cultivation. In 2013, the cultivated area of rice in Trinidad was 9,571 hectares, which rose to 14,888 hectares in 2023—a similar situation occurred in Paz de Ariporo, where the rice cultivation area increased from 5,467 hectares in 2013 to 35,960 hectares in 2023. This makes Casanare the leading rice producer in the country (DANE 2023).
During the period from 2014 to 2020, more than 545,000 hectares of savannas were converted to agricultural land use, primarily for exotic pastures for livestock, followed by crops (either temporary or perennial herbaceous) and forest plantations. These transitions represented 3.7% of the altillanura savanna area and 6.2% of the the alluvial overflow plain savannas area at the beginning of the period.
By 2030, an additional transformation of 537,000 hectares of forests and 820,000 hectares of savannas into productive uses is anticipated, mainly in the piedmont and floodable savannas (Álvarez et al., 2023).
In Paraguay the species is considered a vagrant, with just two documented records and one additional report, and as such its conservation status has not been formally assessed (on the national Red List).
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 25 April 2025. We will now analyse and interpret the information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this species’ Red List category on this page on 25 April 2025, when discussions will re-open.
Preliminary proposal
We thank those who took the time to comment on this initial proposal, particularly the detailed information shared by T. Boorsma and C. Ruiz-Guerra. This information, pertaining to Bolivia and Colombia, provides evidence of ongoing declines in these states. However, these declines are to some degree offset by the situation in Brazil, where the population is probably stable or increasing. The assessment here considers the species’ global risk of extinction. A global decline of 1-19% over the past three generations (combining all national trends) is still regarded as accurate. Accordingly, the species still does not meet or approach the thresholds for listing as threatened under any IUCN Red List Criteria.
Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2025 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classification outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 4 May 2025, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2025 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in October 2025, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments. We will analyse and interpret the information, and a final decision on this species’ Red List category will be posted on this page on 12 May 2025.