The Greenland White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons flavirostris
The Greenland White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons flavirostris
The Greenland White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons flavirostris
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of this goose population. At the same time, the<br />
pioneering work of Major Ruttledge laid the basis<br />
for the establishment of a network of counters<br />
in Ireland, co-ordinated by John Wilson and Dave<br />
Norriss of the Irish Forest and Wildlife Service<br />
(latterly the National Parks and Wildlife, Dúchas,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Heritage Service). <strong>The</strong> network comprises<br />
mostly Conservation Rangers supplemented with<br />
BirdWatch Ireland volunteers and collates habitat,<br />
disturbance, production data as well as organising<br />
the counts. <strong>The</strong>se counts aimed to provide<br />
an assessment of numbers at all known wintering<br />
sites at least twice a year (generally monthly<br />
throughout the season where possible) with a<br />
measure of breeding success based on a sample<br />
of the proportion of young birds of the year. This<br />
system has now been operating annually since<br />
1982/83 and generates annual population estimates<br />
and assessment of breeding success (Fox<br />
et al. 1994a, MS14).<br />
2.5 Changes in distribution and<br />
abundance since protection in 1982/83<br />
Before 1981, the <strong>Greenland</strong> <strong>White</strong>-<strong>fronted</strong> <strong>Goose</strong><br />
was legal quarry throughout its entire range.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is little doubt that during 1950-1970, the<br />
population was suffering damaging effects of<br />
habitat loss and modification on the population<br />
as well as a considerable off-take that occurred<br />
through hunting. Birds were being captured and<br />
killed on the breeding areas, shot legally in Iceland<br />
in autumn, as well as poached illegally there<br />
in spring. Substantial numbers were shot on the<br />
wintering areas, particularly in Ireland (where<br />
this was one of the few wild goose species widely<br />
available as a quarry species).<br />
Following the first appraisal of the global distribution<br />
and abundance of the population in the<br />
1970s, conservation concern was expressed for the<br />
<strong>Greenland</strong> <strong>White</strong>-<strong>fronted</strong> <strong>Goose</strong>, particularly because<br />
of the decline in numbers in Ireland during<br />
the 1950s-1970s (Owen 1978, Ruttledge & Ogilvie<br />
1979). As a relatively long-lived bird, the <strong>Greenland</strong><br />
<strong>White</strong>-<strong>fronted</strong> <strong>Goose</strong> is sensitive to even<br />
small scale changes in annual adult survival.<br />
Limitation of the hunting kill was an obvious<br />
management response to attempt to restore the<br />
population to a more favourable conservation status.<br />
Hence, the conservation status of the subspecies<br />
was modified throughout its range, especially<br />
through protection from hunting, and in latter<br />
years, through site safeguard programmes (see<br />
Stroud 1992 for full details of protection measures).<br />
In summary, the population ceased to be<br />
legal quarry in Ireland and Scotland from 1982<br />
(although this moratorium was lifted at Wexford<br />
in the winters of 1985/86 and 1989/90 under strict<br />
bag limitation) and in Northern Ireland in 1985.<br />
<strong>The</strong> species has been protected at its only remaining<br />
regular wintering site in Wales, the Dyfi Estuary,<br />
by a voluntary shooting ban in place since<br />
1972 (Fox & Stroud 1985). In Iceland, the species<br />
remains legal quarry in autumn where 2,900-3,200<br />
geese have been shot each year (Wildlife Management<br />
Institute 1999). <strong>The</strong>re has been no significant<br />
trend in the proportion of marked birds<br />
recovered in Iceland annually since 1984 (F 15 =<br />
0.11, P = 0.74), suggesting a constant proportion<br />
have been shot over this period (mean 3.8% ± 0.40<br />
SE marked birds shot and reported in Iceland per<br />
annum). Since 1985, the population remains legal<br />
quarry in <strong>Greenland</strong> only during 15 August –<br />
30 April, extending the protection in the nesting<br />
season to spring migration as well. It is thought<br />
that currently some 100-200 geese are shot there<br />
annually (MS24).<br />
Given the high site fidelity shown by the species<br />
on the breeding, wintering and staging grounds<br />
(MS5, MS7, MS9, MS27), site safeguard is clearly<br />
an important element in any nature conservation<br />
strategy to maintain key areas and hence maintain<br />
the existing size of the population (Stroud<br />
1992). Use of the Ramsar 1% criterion for site protection<br />
has proved an effective mechanism to focus<br />
conservation priorities on the larger concentrations,<br />
but fails to protect the sites used by the<br />
smaller more vulnerable flocks that show the<br />
most dramatic declines (MS14). Nevertheless, site<br />
protection in the UK (through EEC Birds Directive<br />
SPAs, Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance,<br />
National Nature Reserves (NNRs) and<br />
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (or in Northern<br />
Ireland - Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs)<br />
cover, in whole or in part, habitats used by geese<br />
at 22 sites. <strong>The</strong> UK SPA network is anticipated to<br />
support at least 8,000 geese at 12 SPAs specifically<br />
classified for <strong>Greenland</strong> <strong>White</strong>fronts (an estimated<br />
59% of the British total and 28% of the<br />
international population in the mid-1990s; Stroud<br />
et al. in prep.). <strong>The</strong> SPAs include a state-owned<br />
NNR, Eilean na Muice Dubh/Duich Moss on Islay,<br />
the most important single roost site in the UK.<br />
This was acquired following the threat of commercial<br />
peat cutting in the 1980s (Stroud 1985;<br />
Nature Conservancy Council 1985; <strong>Greenland</strong><br />
<strong>White</strong>-<strong>fronted</strong> <strong>Goose</strong> Study 1986). Statutory pro-<br />
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