Battling to save endangered geese
By Henning
Poulsen - Newswire Norway
Not too many decades ago, thousands of lesser white-fronted
geese migrated from Northern Europe each year to spend the winter
in sunny Greece. Today, very few make the journey. Measures to reverse
this decline have been set in motion.
"The decline in the lesser white-fronted goose population started
over a hundred years ago. After the war, the situation changed dramatically.
Today, the bird is on the international list of endangered species",
explains Ingar Jostein Øien of the Norwegian Ornithological Society
(NOF). He has been monitoring the geese for ten years. The Norwegian
Pollution Control Authority (SFT) supported the Society's efforts
to protect the endangered bird's stopover site in Hungary.
Like all geese, the lesser white-fronted goose is a migratory
bird. In summer it nests on the windswept plains of Northern Scandinavia.
In early September, the flocks begin their long journey south to
milder climes. Over the past decades, fewer and fewer have returned.
Almost extinct
"At the end of the 80s, we started to keep a watch on the great
expanse of Finnmark, in the far north of Scandinavia. The number
of birds we found was devastatingly low, not more than 30 to 50
pairs", explains Øien. As researchers could not find a logical explanation
for the population fall in the north, they started to look further
south.
In 1995 the Society received funding from SFT to attach radio
transmitters to some of the geese. The aim was to find out where
they migrated to in the autumn by monitoring the transmitters by
satellite.
"We caught and tagged five birds. After nesting, the birds flew
east to the Kanin Peninsula in North West Russia, an important resting
place which we were not aware of. The birds then separated into
two flocks. Two of the tagged geese flew south west over Germany
and Hungary and arrived in Greece in late November, while the others
flew south east towards Kazakhstan".
Two of the eastward bound birds were shot close to the Urals.
The third goose knew the way to an important resting place in Kazakhstan.
But researchers still do not know if the eastward bound birds spend
the winter even further east. However, NOF was able to discover
the migration route and winter home of the birds that flew westward.
Hungary a key area
"We now know that the geese arrive at the Hungarian National Park
Hortobàgy in mid September, and rest there for a month before flying
on towards Greece. Which means Hungary is a key area for the birds",
says Øien.
At night, the geese rest in artificial fish ponds in the national
park. Each day they leave the park to graze on the Puztas plains,
the largest steppes in Europe. Here they are easy pickings for hunters
who do not care whether or not a bird is protected.
Øien is particularly angry about the Italian hunting culture.
Shoot everything that moves
"Many Italians go to Eastern
Europe purely for the opportunity of some cheap hunting. They bring
with them the Italian tradition, which put bluntly means shooting
everything that moves", he says with feeling.
NOF's Hungarian equivalent MME has purchased several of the goose's
traditional resting grounds in Hungary, and made them totally secure.
As a result, the geese are now beginning to use lakes such as Kardoskút
and Biharurga again. In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund
and NOF's umbrella organisation BirdLife International, researchers
have started to pressurise the Russian and Hungarian authorities
to protect key areas for the lesser white-fronted geese. The Kanin
Peninsula is now a protected area where all hunting is banned. Øien
and his colleagues are now fighting to protect the lesser white-fronted
geese, which spend the winter in Kazakhstan.
Wild West in Kazakhstan
"In Kazakhstan and Dagestan it is still like the Wild West for these
birds. If the population is to rise, we have to put a stop to the
indiscriminate shooting of the geese in these areas, and to do so,
we need the support of organisations like SFT", he says.
Even so, he is pleased that the population seems to have stabilised
somewhat, and for the very first time he is optimistic that the
arctic lesser white-fronted goose will remain part of European fauna
in the future. "However, the population is still at risk, and a
few unfortunate incidents could have fatal consequences", Øien warns.
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