Fennoscandian Lesser White-fronted Goose conservation project ...

Introduction
Petteri Tolvanen
Juha Markkola
Ingar Jostein Øien
Tomas Aarvak
Fennoscandian Lesser White-fronted Goose conservation project – Annual report 1999
Tolvanen et al: Introduction
The Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus, later LWfG) is a globally
endangered species (Tucker & Heath 1994, Tolvanen et al. 1999), and at present
the only threatened arctic goose species in the Palearctic region. The current
estimate of the world population in mid-winter is 25,000–30,000 individuals
(Tolvanen et al. 1999), of which normally approximately 20–40% are juveniles
(see e.g. Tolvanen et al. 2000, pp. 43–50 in this report; Markkola et al. 2000, pp. 9–15 in
this report).
Hunting in the wintering grounds, on migration and also in the breeding grounds has
proved to be the main threat to the LWfG populations. In addition, also other significant
threats like decrease and deterioration of wintering and staging habitats, human disturbance
and increased depredation by e.g. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) exist locally. Based on ring
recoveries and satellite tracking data, it has become clear that the high hunting pressure
alone is sufficient to explain the continuous decline of the LWfG populations. Spring hunting
of adult birds, which is still very common in most of the LWfG breeding range in Russia in
the staging and breeding areas has especially harmful effects on the population. In China,
where the LWfG leave the wintering grounds as late as in early April, the winter hunting
pressure from poachers using poison is especially harmful to the eastern populations.
The LWfG world population can roughly be divided into two parts of equal size between
the western and eastern flyway populations (Lorentsen et al. 1999). The western flyway
consists of populations that breed in scattered patches in an area stretching from Fennoscandia
to Taimyr Peninsula (see e.g. Morozov 2000, pp. 35–38 in this report), and migrate through
north-western Kazakstan (see e.g. Tolvanen et al. 2000, pp. 43–50 in this report) to the still
mainly unknown wintering areas somewhere in the Caspian Sea – Black Sea region.
Approximately 1,100 LWfG were found in Azerbaijan in January–February 1996 (Aarvak
et al. 1996), 440 individuals were reported in Turkmenistan in the winter 1998–1999 (see
Markkola 2000b, p. 57 in this report), and recent observations indicate that considerable
amounts of LWfG could be wintering in the border area between Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan and Tadjikistan (see Markkola 2000a, p. 57 in this report), and in the Crimea
region in Ukraine (Kondratyev et al. 2000, p. 60 in this report). However, the wintering
Photo. A pair of Lesser White-fronted Geese at the Valdak Marshes, Norway. © Ingar Jostein Øien, May 1999.
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