Eaton's Pintail
Encyclopedia
The Eaton's Pintail is a dabbling duck of the genus
Anas. The species is restricted to the island groups of Kerguelen and Crozet
in the southern Indian Ocean
. It resembles a small female Northern Pintail
. It was named after the English explorer and naturalist Alfred Edmund Eaton. It is threatened by introduced species
, particularly feral cat
s, which prey on them.
There are two subspecies
: A. eatoni eatoni (Kerguelen Pintail) and A. eatoni drygalskii (Crozet Pintail).
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Anas. The species is restricted to the island groups of Kerguelen and Crozet
Crozet Islands
The Crozet Islands are a sub-antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.-Geography:...
in the southern Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. It resembles a small female Northern Pintail
Northern Pintail
The Pintail or Northern Pintail is a widely occurring duck which breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator...
. It was named after the English explorer and naturalist Alfred Edmund Eaton. It is threatened by introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
, particularly feral cat
Feral cat
A feral cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild. It is distinguished from a stray cat, which is a pet cat that has been lost or abandoned, while feral cats are born in the wild; the offspring of a stray cat can be considered feral if born in the wild.In many parts of...
s, which prey on them.
There are two subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
: A. eatoni eatoni (Kerguelen Pintail) and A. eatoni drygalskii (Crozet Pintail).