Tadorna cana
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The South African shelduck or Cape shelduck (Tadorna cana) is a species of shelduck, a group of large goose-like birds in the bird family Anatidae, which includes the swans, geese and ducks. This is a common species native to southern Africa.
This is a 64 cm (25 in) long bird which breeds mainly in Namibia and South Africa. In the austral winter, many birds move north-east from the breeding range to favoured moulting grounds, where sizable concentrations occur.
This species is mainly associated with lakes and rivers in fairly open country, breeding in disused mammal holes, usually those of the aardvark. Pairs tend to be very nomadic when not in breeding season. The South African shelduck was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other geese, ducks and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas cana. Gmelin based his description on the "Grey-headed goose" from the Cape of Good Hope that the English ornithologist John Latham had described in 1785 in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The South African shelduck is now placed... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 2 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Busch Gardens Tampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Tierpark Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Toronto Zoo | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Baton Rouge Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Curitiba Zoo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Slimbridge Wetland Centre | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Cape May County Park & Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Audubon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Oasis Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | Wrocław Zoological Garden | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 11 | Temaikén | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 12 | Cologne Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 13 | Valencia Bioparc | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 14 | L'Oceanogràfic | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 15 | African Dawn Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 16 | Bird Park Steinen | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 17 | World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary and Monkey Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 18 | Central Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Avifauna | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 20 | Bioparc Fuengirola | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 21 | Parc Animalier Charles-Édouard Beltremieux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 22 | Africarium | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 23 | Cologne Zoo Aquarium | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 24 | Snakeroom Serpentarium | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 25 | terrarium ogrodu zoologicznego we Wrocławiu | 🇵🇱 Poland |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a South African Shelduck sighting in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 40 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 128th most-seen of the 189 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March, May and September–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a South African Shelduck in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in April, July–August and December–January, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most South African Shelduck sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate South African Shelduck sightings, De Hoop Nature Reserve ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Etosha National Park (Namibia, about 30%), Addo Elephant National Park (South Africa, about 20%) and West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 20%).
Same family: Anatidae
The closest relatives of the South African Shelduck that you can see in De Hoop Nature Reserve (family Anatidae, Ducks, Geese, and Swans) are Egyptian Goose (about 60%), Spur-winged Goose (about 30%) and Cape Shoveler (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the South African Shelduck is recorded against all the birds logged in De Hoop Nature Reserve (40 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
