Phalacrocorax gaimardi occurs on the coasts of southern South America: 13,000-15,000 breeding birds in the Pacific from Isla Foca,
Peru, to Punta Elefante, Peninsula de Taitao,
Chile; and 1,600-1,800 birds in the Atlantic from Bahia Sanguinetto to the Monte León National Park, Santa Cruz province and occasionally to the strait of Magellan,
Argentina (Gandini & Frere 1995; Zavalaga
et al. 2002; Frere
et al. 2004, 2005). Populations have declined, particularly in Peru (Frere
et al. 2004). A series of surveys in Peru in 1999-2000 estimated the population to number 1,518-2,082 birds, and reported declines of up to 97.9% (3,229 to 69 birds) at ten localities in northern and central Peru between 1968 and 1999-2000, declines of 97.6% (2,230 to 54 birds) in the Chinchas and Ballestas islands between 1978 and 1999-2000, and declines of 72.6% (580 to 159 birds) at eight southern localities between the first half of the 1990s and 1999-2000 (Zavalaga
et al. 2002). In Chile, surveys during 1998-2000 produced an estimate of 5,018-5,218 breeding pairs (Frere
et al. 2004). Although El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events may have led to distributional changes (with southern regions having become particularly important for the species), the population declines reported in Peru do not seem to have been mirrored in Chile (Frere
et al. 2004). The main 12 colonies in Argentina are concentrated along the coast of Santa Cruz (Puerto Deseado and Santa Cruz) (Gandini & Frere 1995; Frere
et al. 2005), where coastal development is increasing rapidly (Gandini & Frere 1995). During the last 10 years the Argentinian breeding population has declined by 18% but the causes are unknown (Millones
et al. 2007).
The world population is now estimated at 30,000 individuals (Frere
in litt. 2007) . Continued population declines may lead to this species being uplisted to Vulnerable.
Rights Holder: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Bibliographic Citation: BirdLife International 2012.
Phalacrocorax gaimardi. In: IUCN 2014 . IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1 . <
www.iucnredlist.org>
