Gallery MontPhoto biennial grant 2021

Hooded grebe, a new sunrise

AUTOR/S

Adriana Claudia Sanz

Adriana Sanz, Argentina (1970), has lived since she was a child in Chubut, Patagonia. Master’s degree in environment, she devote herself full time to the care and preservation of the environment. It was from her environmental work that she discovers her passion for nature photography, from where she seeks to aware the public with her photos and raise a greater commitment and protection of the ecosystems and it's living creatures. She is co-founder of the Argentinian Association of Nature Photographers (AFONA) been an active member. She collaborates with her images in conservation organisations and charities, scientific entities, magazines, photographic interviews. She was a member of the jury for the Golden Turtle, FIO-Extremadura, M. Climent Picornell contests. She has been a category winner at the Golden Turtle (2019), NPOTY (2019), honorable mention at Memorial María Luisa (2022) and a finalist in several international competitions. She also gives talks and is a speaker for national and international nature photography festivals

FULL REPORT

According to the latest studies, it is estimated that the current breeding population of Hooded Grebe (Podiceps gallardoi) is less than 800 individuals.
In the last 35 years, this endemic species from the province of Santa Cruz - Argentina has been reduced its population by 80%. For this reason, it is classified globally as Critically Endangered.
It has been four years now the last time it did successfully reproduced and this is due to the absence of the natural conditions that allow it to nest in the southern lagoons where it inhabits.

The Hooded grebe lives its entire life without touching dry land. This specificity makes them completely dependent on lacustrine bodies of water in the northwest of the province of Santa Cruz, where they breed, as well as on the estuaries of the rivers in the southeast of the same province, where they spend the winter as a feeding ground. The absence of successful reproductive rate is due to changes in the life cycle of the Andean water milfoil (Myriophyllum quitense), a macrophyte that they use to build their nests. Added to this is the negative pressure of invasive species such as rainbow trout, kelp gull and American mink.
It hasn’t gone to extinction yet, due to the conservation efforts carried out in the last decade by civil organisations and private parties determined to save it. Today these efforts are aimed at controlling those present exotic species, stimulating nesting through the construction of raft nests and the incubation and rearing of chicks in the laboratory.
The members of the “Patagonia Program - “Macá Tobiano Project” have been dedicated to the study and recovery of this species for a decade. This summer 2021-2022 they have placed thirty (30) rafts distributed in four lagoons, which were used by the grebes for courtship and subsequent mating, working excellently as reproductive stimulators. They plan to double the coverage for this coming season, also adding windbreaks and breakwater systems, in order to avoid the loss of nests caused during frequent wind storms.
Regarding rearing, all these years of work has been trying to identify survival factors. They have limited facilities that allow up to eight (8) eggs to be cared for simultaneously, reaching a survival rate of six (6) chicks for up to four (4) weeks. This was achieved thanks to the enormous effort of professionals and volunteers, who fed them with Blood Worms paste at first, later adding live amphipods collected in nearby lagoons. After been fed, the chicks are introduced into trays with clean water, imitating the behaviour of their parents and where they can poop. These activities are carried out every half hour, twenty-four hours a day, requiring rotating shifts of full-time attention. The project foresees in the future, having adequate facilities and specialised staff allowing the incubation and care of fifty (50) individuals. The only way to stop the extinction of this species is to be able to carry out a large-scale breeding of greebe chicks in the field.
It has been crucial adding nature photography to the Patagonia Program - Macá Tobiano Project, to document not only what is related to this species in its natural habitat, but also the numerous field actions carried out for its study, conservation and recovery. These images will contribute to the communication and spreading the lines of action of the Patagonia Program, strengthening them, identifying Montphoto as one of the most significant contributors in the quest to care for this unique species in an extremely critical situation. Everyone's efforts is crucial to stop the extinction of the Hooded grebe