The Cape Shoveler is a duck of shallow wetlands in southern Africa. Males and females differ in plumage and in the color of their eyes and legs.
Males are more colorful than females and differ in bill, eye, and leg color. During breeding, the male’s eyes become darker yellow and the legs and feet turn orange.
In South Africa’s Wilderness Lakes Complex, waterbirds were counted twice a year in summer and winter from 1992 to 2019. Cape Shoveler was one of the herbivorous and omnivorous species assessed, and across the complex it was recorded more often in summer than in winter.
The same long-term record showed significant declines in Cape Shoveler abundance in both summer and winter surveys. Counts also fell substantially on the Swartvlei system from the 2000s to the 2010s. Seasonal abundance and change over decades were recorded in the same survey series.
Observers followed repeated boat routes along the lakes on calm days and tried to keep the same counters throughout the survey. This made the long series of summer and winter counts comparable.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In the 1992–2019 Wilderness Lakes surveys, Cape Shoveler abundance declined significantly in both summer and winter. The decline was recorded across multiple waterbodies in the complex.