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
Supplementation of the wild LWfG population in Norway
On August 26, four LWfG goslings bred at the Swedish farm Nordens Ark were released at the Valdak Marshes, Finnmark County, Norway. The parents being wild caught LWfGs from the Polar Urals in Russia. All four goslings were equipped with black neck bands with white inscription (A09, A16, A17 & A18), and two of them were equipped with satellite transmitters - one of backpack type and one was attached to the neck band. The goslings joined the wild flock very soon, and we could follow them by satellites throughout the staging period in Porsanger, from where they left on September 14. On September 15. they were located in the core breeding area, and on September 20. they continued southwards (last signal from the neck band transmitter came from the breeding area). On 23-25 September, the gosling with the backpack transmitter was located to the north of Vaasa in Finland, but to our surprise it then went to Southern Sweden where it still is. The bird has been seen by Swedish bird watchers, and it was alone. So now we are eager waiting for news/sightings from Hungary or Greece. There are still two goslings unaccounted for!
0 November 2010 by Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management & Birdlife Norway
International Action Plan in Russian
The single species action plan for the Lesser White-fronted Goose has been made available also in Russian?
0 0 2010 by
Busy autumn for the Lesser White-fronted Goose!
The implementation of the International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Lesser White-fronted Goose (LWfG) is picking up this autumn with three meetings and an extensive monitoring mission in Kazakhstan lined up before Christmas. Read more here (AEWA)?
0 October 2010 by