New report series for the Lesser White-fronted Goose by AEWA
The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat has announcde the launch of a new report series developed under the AEWA Lesser White-fronted Goose International Working Group (LWfG IWG). Two reports have been released, the first covering a survey of potential wintering sites in Syria and the second features the results of a one year pilot-project focusing on the regulation of spring and autumn hunting of waterbirds in the Kumo-Manych Depression in the Republic of Kalmykia in south-western Russia.
0 April 2011 by
Wintering of geese in Manytch, Russia
No snow this year and temperature about minus 10, but on Manytch lake and Podmanki bay the areas of open water are constant. A lot of geese are wintering in this region - 80-90 thousands only on Manytch lake, Kalaus river and Lysy liman. The main species are White-fronted geese and Greylags, but also some Lessers (guestimate of 0.5-1% of the total amount, so 1000 birds or more) and red-breasted geese - three flocks about 150 individuals in Stavropol district and about 5000 birds in 1 flock in Rostov district. The main roosting place is in Manytch lake near bridge in Divnoe village. The geese are feeding on the winter wheat fields and damage on plants are now evident. Totally in the Kumo-Manytch depression there can be wintering hundreds of thousands of geese. This year is really exclusive, and nobody can remember so many wintering geese before in this region.
2 February 2011 by Fedosov Viktor, Stavropol district & Kazmin Vladimir Rostov state reserve
First AEWA Lesser White-fronted Goose International Working Group Meeting held in Helsinki
Coordinated international efforts for the conservation of the Western Palearctic population of the Lesser White-fronted Goose got off to a good start in Helsinki, Finland, at the first ever meeting of the AEWA Lesser White-fronted Goose International Working Group. The meeting took place at the Finnish Ministry of the Environment on the 30th?of November and 1st?of December. Read the full story here?
0 December 2010 by
Hundreds of Red-breasted geese perished because of foul weather in Kalmykya
In the middle of December in Priyutnensky region of Kalmykya on the huge winter wheat field hunters registered thousands of dead geese and little bustards. Most of them were Red-breasted geese, but also Lesser white-fronted geese. The cause of the death was the uncommon weather conditions ? snow with rain in combination of frost of minus10 degrees. Thus, the snow was transformed immediately into a thick ice layer, which covered the vegetation and the birds were caught in the ice shell. The thickness of ice carapace on the geese attained 15 cm and didn?t permit them to move. The main part of the injured/dead geese were juveniles. The hunters Povolozky Vladimir and Savtchenko Viktor saved 17 living Red-breasted geese. They released the geese from the ice and transported them with their car to Priyutnoe village, where the geese were heated in a hen house. The hunters informed about the tragedy to the Ministry of natural resources of Kalmykya. In the next day when the snow already melted, the Red-breasted geese were released. Three birds couldn?t fly and were transported to the center of wild animals of Kalmykya Esmeli. We hope that these birds will survive and next spring will be released to the wild. Vladimir and Viktor kindly presented a video made in the place of the tragedy, but the quality of this film didn?t permit to estimate the exact number of perished geese. By the time of the special inspection of this field by the officials from the ministry, the foxes and other raptors already pulled apart the remains of the perished geese and little bustards. The hunters estimated the number of dead Red-breasted geese as about 1000 individuals, the official inspectors appr. 300. The inspection showed that the single cause of this mass mortality of birds was the weather conditions. Over the last years this is the first occurrence of such mass mortality of rare geese in Kalmykya. Most likely this frozen flock was not the only one. Thus, it is impossible to give an exact estimate of the number of Red-breasted geese and Lesser white-fronted geese which perished in Russia in December. We would like to thank Vladimir Povolozky and Viktor Savtchenko for their responsibility and help to save these rare wild geese that got into trouble.
0 December 2010 by Sonia Rozenfeld Institute of ecology and evolution, Russian academy of sciences
Lesser White-fronted Goose project amongst the Best LIFE Nature Projects in 2009!
The Finnish LIFE Nature project to protect the Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus is one of 23 Best LIFE Nature Projects being featured in a new European Commission publication highlighting the 2009 awards. Read the full story here (AEWA)?
0 November 2010 by