Anas acuta -- Linnaeus, 1758ANIMALIA -- CHORDATA -- AVES -- ANSERIFORMES -- ANATIDAECommon names: Northern Pintail; Canard pilet; Pintail

European Red List AssessmentEuropean Red List Status

LC -- Least Concern, (IUCN version 3.1)

Assessment InformationYear published: 2015Date assessed: 2015-03-31Assessor(s): BirdLife InternationalReviewer(s): Symes, A.Compiler(s): Ashpole, J., Burfield, I., Ieronymidou, C., Pople, R., Wheatley, H. & Wright, L.Assessment RationaleEuropean regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)EU27 regional assessment: Vulnerable (VU)

In Europe this species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern in Europe.

In the EU27 the species is undergoing rapid declines that exceed 30% over the last three generation lengths (one GL = 6.8 years), and it is therefore classified as Vulnerable. Since the wider European population is also decreasing, there is not considered to be significant potential for rescue from outside the EU27 and the final category is unchanged.

OccurrenceCountries/Territories of OccurrenceNative:Albania; Armenia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Faroe Islands (to DK); Greenland (to DK); Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland, Rep. of; Italy; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Malta; Montenegro; Netherlands; Norway; Svalbard and Jan Mayen (to NO); Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russian Federation; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Canary Is. (to ES); Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; Ukraine; United Kingdom

PopulationThe European population is estimated at 210,000-269,000 pairs, which equates to 419,000-539,000 mature individuals. The population in the EU27 is estimated at 8,600-17,300 pairs, which equates to 17,200-34,700 mature individuals. For details of national estimates, see Supplementary PDF.

TrendIn Europe the population size is estimated to be decreasing by less than 25% in 20.4 years (three generations). In the EU27 the population size is estimated to be decreasing by 30-49% over the same period. For details of national estimates, see Supplementary PDF.

Habitats and EcologyThe species shows a preference for open lowland grassland (Snow and Perrins 1998), prairie or tundra habitats (Johnsgard 1978) containing freshwater, brackish and saline wetlands with shallow water to facilitate

dabbling (Kear 2005). Wetland habitats include shallow freshwater marshes, small marshy lakes, slow-flowing rivers (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014) and wet meadows (Madge and Burn 1988), especially favouring ponds with low, dense marginal vegetation and wetlands interspersed with brushy thickets or copses (Johnsgard 1978). During the winter it also frequents large inland lakes (Scott and Rose 1996), brackish coastal lagoons, brackish (Madge and Burn 1988) and saline marshes (Steele et al. 1997), shallow fresh or brackish estuaries (Johnsgard 1978, Brown et al. 1982, Snow and Perrins 1998), tidal flats (Madge and Burn 1988) and river deltas (Scott and Rose 1996) with adjacent agricultural land and scattered impoundments (Johnsgard 1978).

It breeds in solitary pairs or loose groups from April to June (Madge and Burn 1988). The nest is a slight hollow on the ground amongst vegetation (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014) and can be close to or more than 1 km away from water (Kear 2005). This species is omnivorous (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014) and opportunistic (Johnsgard 1978), its diet consisting of algae (Brown et al. 1982), seeds (Hockey et al. 2005) and rice (Brown et al. 1982), tubers, and the vegetative parts of aquatic plants, sedges (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014) and grasses (Brown et al. 1982, Hockey et al. 2005), as well as aquatic invertebrates, amphibians and small fish. This species is strongly migratory throughout its northern range (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014).Habitats & Altitude

Habitat (level 1 - level 2) Importance OccurrenceMarine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Brackish/Saline Lagoons/Marine Lakes suitable breedingMarine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Brackish/Saline Lagoons/Marine Lakes suitable non-breedingMarine Neritic - Estuaries suitable breedingMarine Neritic - Estuaries suitable non-breedingWetlands (inland) - Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands suitable breedingWetlands (inland) - Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over ha) major breedingWetlands (inland) - Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over ha) major non-breedingWetlands (inland) - Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls) suitable breedingWetlands (inland) - Permanent Saline, Brackish or Alkaline Lakes suitable non-breedingWetlands (inland) - Seasonal/Intermittent Freshwater Marshes/Pools (under ha) suitable breedingAltitude Occasional altitudinal limits

ThreatsThe species is threatened by wetland habitat loss on its breeding and wintering grounds (Scott and Rose 1996). Reclamation of coastal areas for industrial development poses a threat in Europe (Scott and Rose 1996). The species is also threatened by petroleum pollution, wetland drainage, peat-extraction, changing wetland management practices (decreased grazing and mowing in meadows leading to scrub over-growth) and the burning and mowing of reeds in Russia (Grishanov 2006). It suffers from over-exploitation in Europe (Kear 2005). The species is predated by feral cats (Felis catus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus) on islands (Carboneras and Kirwan 2014), and is susceptible to avian botulism (Rocke 2006) and avian influenza (Melville and Shortridge 2006, Gaidet et al. 2007) so may be threatened by future outbreaks of these diseases. The species is hunted recreationally in Denmark (Bregnballe et al. 2006) and the Po delta, Italy (Sorrenti et al. 2006). The eggs of this species used to be (and possibly still are) harvested in Iceland (Gudmundsson 1979).Threats & Impacts

Threat (level 1) Threat (level 2) Impact and StressesBiological resource use

Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals (intentional use - species is the target)

Timing Scope Severity ImpactOngoing Minority (<50%) Negligible declines Low Impact

StressesSpecies mortality

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Avian Influenza Virus (H subtype)

Timing Scope Severity ImpactPast, Likely to Return

Majority (50-90%) Rapid Declines Past Impact

StressesSpecies mortality

Threats & ImpactsThreat (level 1) Threat (level 2) Impact and Stresses

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

Timing Scope Severity ImpactPast, Likely to Return

Minority (<50%) Rapid Declines Past Impact

StressesSpecies mortality

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Clostridium botulinum

Timing Scope Severity ImpactPast, Likely to Return

Majority (50-90%) Rapid Declines Past Impact

StressesSpecies mortality

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Domestic Cat (Felis catus)

Timing Scope Severity ImpactOngoing Minority (<50%) Slow, Significant

DeclinesLow Impact

StressesSpecies mortality

Natural system modifications

Abstraction of ground water (agricultural use)

Timing Scope Severity ImpactOngoing Minority (<50%) Slow, Significant

DeclinesLow Impact

StressesEcosystem conversion

Natural system modifications

Other ecosystem modifications

Timing Scope Severity ImpactOngoing Majority (50-90%) Slow, Significant

DeclinesMedium Impact

StressesEcosystem conversion

Pollution Oil spills Timing Scope Severity ImpactOngoing Minority (<50%) Slow, Significant

DeclinesLow Impact

StressesEcosystem degradation; Species mortality

ConservationConservation Actions UnderwayCMS Appendix II. EU Birds Directive Annex II and III. An EU management plan for the species was published in 2007. The important sites for the species are protected in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, U.K., Spain, Portugal and Greece (Jensen 2007).

Conservation Actions ProposedHunting of this species should be banned during migration and at the end of the breeding season and annual data on bag numbers should be collected for all countries where the species is hunted. Breeding sites should be identified, preserved and managed to increase reproductive success and colonising ability and all internationally important staging and wintering sites should be designated as SPAs and managed favourably. Censusing of winter populations and breeding populations, to provide an assessment of breeding productivity, should be carried out annually. Ringing on breeding and wintering sites should also be carried out and existing ringing data analysed to identify population units and provide annual estimates of mortality (Jensen 2007).

BibliographyCarboneras, C. and Kirwan, G.M. 2014. Northern Pintail (Anas acuta). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. and de Juana, E. (eds.) 2014. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/52884 on 4 March 2015).Jensen, F.P. 2007. Management plan for pintail (Anas acuta) 2007-2009. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.Bregnballe, T., Noer, H., Christensen, T.K., Clausen, P., Asferg, T., Fox, A.D., Delany, S. 2006. Sustainable hunting of migratory waterbirds: the Danish approach. In: Boere, G., Galbraith, C. and Stroud, D. (ed.), Waterbirds around the world, pp. 854-860. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK.

BibliographyBrown, L.H., Urban, E.K. and Newman, K. 1982. The birds of Africa vol I. Academic Press, London.Gaidet, N., Dodman, T., Caron, A., Balanca, G., Desvaux, S., Goutard, F., Cattoli, G., Lamarque, F., Hagemeijer, W. and Monicat, F. 2007. Avian Influenza Viruses in Water Birds, Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases 13(4): 626-629.Grishanov, D. 2006. Conservation problems of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds and their habitats in the Kaliningrad region of Russia. In: Boere, G.; Galbraith, C., Stroud, D. (ed.), Waterbirds around the world, pp.356. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK.Gudmundsson, F. 1979. The past status and exploitation of the Myvatn waterfowl populations. Oikos 32(1-2): 232-249.Hagemeijer, W.J.M. and Blair, M.J. 1997. The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds: Their Distribution and Abundance. T and A D Poyser, London.Hockey, P.A.R., Dean, W.R.J. and Ryan, P.G. 2005. Roberts birds of southern Africa. Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town, South Africa.Johnsgard, P.A. 1978. Ducks, geese and swans of the World. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.Kear, J. 2005. Ducks, geese and swans volume 2: species accounts (Cairina to Mergus). Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.Madge, S. and Burn, H. 1988. Wildfowl. Christopher Helm, London.Melville, D.S. and Shortridge, K.F. 2006. Migratory waterbirds and avian influenza in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway with particular reference to the 2003-2004 H5N1 outbreak. In: Boere, G., Galbraith, C. and Stroud, D. (ed.), Waterbirds around the world, pp. 432-438. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK.Rocke, T.E. 2006. The global importance of avian botulism. In: Boere, G., Galbraith, C. and Stroud, D. (ed.), Waterbirds around the world, pp. 422-426. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK.Scott, D.A. and Rose, P.M. 1996. Atlas of Anatidae populations in Africa and western Eurasia. Wetlands International, Wageningen, Netherlands.Snow, D.W.; Perrins, C.M. 1998. The Birds of the Western Palearctic vol. 1: Non-Passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Sorrenti, M., Carnacina, L., Radice, D. and Costato, A. 2006. Duck harvest in the Po delta, Italy. In: Boere, G., Galbraith, C. and Stroud, D. (ed.), Waterbirds around the world, pp. 864-865. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK.Steele, B.B., Reitsma, L.R., Racine, C.H., Burson, S.L. III., Stuart, R. and Theberge, R. 1997. Different susceptibilities to white phosphorous poisoning among five species of ducks. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 16(11): 2275-2282.

Map (see overleaf)