Puna Teal

About the Puna Teal

The Puna teal (Spatula puna) is a species of dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. It was at one time regarded as a subspecies of the silver teal (Spatula versicolor). The Puna teal is resident in the Andes of Peru, western Bolivia, northern Chile, and extreme northwestern Argentina. It is found on the larger lakes and pools in the altiplano.

The status of the Puna teal is Least Concern, as listed on the IUCN Red List. The first formal description of the Puna teal was by the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi in 1844 under the binomial name Anas puna. It was at one time considered a subspecies of the silver teal in the genus Anas.

A molecular phylogenetic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2009 found that the genus Anas, as then defined, was non-monophyletic. This resulted in the split of the genus into four monophyletic genera with ten species, including the Puna teal, which moved into the resurrected genus Spatula. This marked the change of the Puna teal from a subspecies into a monotypic species. The genus Spatula was originally proposed by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822. The name Spatula is the Latin for a "spoon" or "spatula... Wikipedia →