Oressochen melanopterus[2][3] The Andean goose (Chloephaga melanoptera) is a species of waterfowl in tribe Tadornini of subfamily Anserinae.

[8] The Andean goose is found from Peru's departments of Ancash and Junín south through western Bolivia to the Ñuble Region of Chile and in Argentina into Catamarca Province.

In elevation it is found almost entirely above 3,000 m (9,800 ft) but in Chile moves lower temporarily in times of heavy winter snow.

[8] Andean geese have developed a mutation in their hemoglobin that has led to a vast increase in hemoglobin-oxygen affinity over that of lower-elevation species.

They are almost entirely terrestrial but will fly to escape danger and will lead chicks into water to avoid predators.

They do not make a conventional nest but lay eggs in a scrape among sparse vegetation and sometimes on bare ground.

Males make "a "soft huit-wit-wit..., crip, quiop, [a] low, grunting kwwwwwu..., [a] single-syllable threat whistle, and double-syllable sexual calls."

[1] "The remote habitat of this species has protected it from human persecution [and it] is unlikely that the areas this goose uses will be modified by man in the near future."