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Abstract

The Fuegian Steamer Duck Tachyeres pteneres is endemic to the southern cone of South America. Though classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, it is categorized as Near Threatened by the Chilean Ministry of Environment. However, few studies have been conducted on this species, and large portions of its distribution remain unsurveyed. This lack of information hinders a full appreciation of the species' conservation status under the IUCN criteria. We therefore conducted extensive surveys along the southern coast of Chile. Between March 2021 and April 2023, we carried out visual censuses at 40 sites (bays, channels, isles, and islets) covering 889 km of coast between Valdivia (40°S) and Caleta Tortel (48°S). Additionally, we surveyed two sites on Navarino Island (Cape Horn archipelago, 54°S) between November 2021 and January 2022. Finally, we compared populations in bays with and without off-bottom bivalve aquaculture in the Chiloé archipelago (43°S). We found variable abundances of Fuegian Steamer Ducks along the Chilean coast, ranging from 0.02 to 2.4 ducks/km, while in 15 sites out of 40 we did not record any individuals. Fuegian Steamer Ducks also occurred significantly more frequently in bays without aquaculture (2.6 ducks/km) than bays with aquaculture (1.8 ducks/km). Our findings represent a marked decline in the species' distribution along archipelagos and continental areas when comparing our results with published data collected more than 10 years ago.

DOI

http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.53.2.1663

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