One thought on “Spectacled Duck (Speculanas specularis)”
Dear committee,
Our NGO (Red de Observadores de aves y vida silvestre de Chile) worked on the update of the Spectacled Duck during 2024 (Díaz Morales et al. 2024). We agree that the species does not reach any threshold to be classified as Vulnerable. However, we disagree on whether there is enough information to determine the population trend is “stable.” The population might be declining, out of our sight.
There is a continuous advance in the distribution of the exotic American Mink, which is even reaching the most remote breeding areas like Cape Horn (Barroso et al. 2024), and it is known that when the American Mink is present, the Spectacled Duck is absent (Girini 2018), and according to the Birds of the World account, there are negative impacts associated to habitat loss, such as dams construction, and forest fires.
In Argentina the population could have suffered a reduction of more than 30%, and it is possibly to continue declining (MAyDS 2017), and its hybridization with the exotic Mallard (that is also expanding in Chile recently) could severely affect its populations in the future.
Considering the advance of these threats, and the fact that the population trend has not been really studied in the recent years, we suggest keeping the species classified as “Near Threatened”.
References
Díaz Morales, J., V. Pantoja-Maggi, J. Cabezas, and P. Pyle (2024). Spectacled Duck (Speculanas specularis), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (M. G. Smith, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.speduc2.02
Girini, J. M. (2018). Cambios en los ensambles y poblaciones de Aves ante la presencia del Visón americano Neovison vison en lagos del norte de la Patagonia andina. Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina.
MAyDS (Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable and Aves Argentinas) (2017). Categorización de las Aves de la Argentina (2015). Informe del Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Nación y de Aves Argentinas, edición electrónica. C. A., Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dear committee,
Our NGO (Red de Observadores de aves y vida silvestre de Chile) worked on the update of the Spectacled Duck during 2024 (Díaz Morales et al. 2024). We agree that the species does not reach any threshold to be classified as Vulnerable. However, we disagree on whether there is enough information to determine the population trend is “stable.” The population might be declining, out of our sight.
There is a continuous advance in the distribution of the exotic American Mink, which is even reaching the most remote breeding areas like Cape Horn (Barroso et al. 2024), and it is known that when the American Mink is present, the Spectacled Duck is absent (Girini 2018), and according to the Birds of the World account, there are negative impacts associated to habitat loss, such as dams construction, and forest fires.
In Argentina the population could have suffered a reduction of more than 30%, and it is possibly to continue declining (MAyDS 2017), and its hybridization with the exotic Mallard (that is also expanding in Chile recently) could severely affect its populations in the future.
Considering the advance of these threats, and the fact that the population trend has not been really studied in the recent years, we suggest keeping the species classified as “Near Threatened”.
References
Díaz Morales, J., V. Pantoja-Maggi, J. Cabezas, and P. Pyle (2024). Spectacled Duck (Speculanas specularis), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (M. G. Smith, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.speduc2.02
Girini, J. M. (2018). Cambios en los ensambles y poblaciones de Aves ante la presencia del Visón americano Neovison vison en lagos del norte de la Patagonia andina. Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina.
MAyDS (Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable and Aves Argentinas) (2017). Categorización de las Aves de la Argentina (2015). Informe del Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Nación y de Aves Argentinas, edición electrónica. C. A., Buenos Aires, Argentina.