130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Species [5] , under which the three flyway populations
of the species are covered by the African-Eurasian
Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). In the AEWA
Action Plan, the East Greenland/Scotland and
Ireland population is listed in Column B (category
1), the Svalbard/Southwest Scotland population is
listed in Column A (category 3a) and the Russia/
Germany and the Netherlands population is listed
in Column C (category 1) [6] .
Abundance:
current status and changes
All populations of Barnacle goose have had positive
trends and numbers increased greatly since regular
monitoring began in the 1950s (Figure 1) [10] . The
Greenland Barnacle goose population increased
from around 8,300 individuals in 1960 to 80,670
in 2013 [11] . Wintering Barnacle geese of the Svalbard
population were considered to be common in
the Solway Firth in the early 20th century, but
substantial declines had occurred by the 1930s [12, 13] .
Numbers have been increasing since the 1960s [13] ,
from 1,650 individuals in 1960 to 31,000 in 2013 [11]
(Figure1). Russian Barnacle geese were considered
numerous in the 19th century, but the population
declined to 10,000 individuals by the early 1950s [14] .
Numbers recovered to 20,000 in 1959–1960 and
since then the population has increased exponentially
[14] and the latest population estimate (2009)
is around 908,000 individuals [4] (Figure 1).
Scale Status Justification
Global
Least Concern Very large range and population size with an
(since 1988) increasing population trend.
Europe
EU25
There were no breeding Barnacle geese in
Svalbard in the latter part of the 19th century and it
is possible that the Svalbard population was created
from a small number of founding birds from the
Greenland population [13] . Svalbard Barnacle geese
winter exclusively on the Solway Firth on the
southwest coast of Scotland [3] . The number and size
of breeding colonies in Svalbard increased greatly
up to the 1960s [13] . The main sites are the Dunøyane,
the Forlandsøyane and the Nordenskiøldkysten
along the west/southwest coast. During migration,
Svalbard Barnacle geese stage on archipelagos off
the coast of Norway, where they forage on fertilised
grasslands, and on the island of Bjørnøya, between
Norway and Svalbard [13] .
Russian Barnacle goose breeding areas have
expanded considerably since the early 1970s, when
the breeding grounds in the Baltic region (Finland,
Sweden) became established [14] . Prior to this, the
only known breeding areas of the population were
on Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach [14] . The breeding
distribution then greatly expanded to the Barents
100,000
Secure (Non-
SPECE)
Secure
Population size increased during 1970–1990 and
1990–2000 and the wintering range has expanded.
Table 1.
Global IUCN Red List
status [7] , European
population and SPEC
status [8] and EU
population status [9]
of Barnacle goose.
Figure 1.
Size of the Barnacle
Goose populations
breeding in
Greenland [11] ,
Svalbard [11] , and
Russia and the
Baltic [4] , since the
late 1940s/1950s.
Distribution:
current status and changes
Greenland Barnacle geese breed along the east
coast of Greenland. During the spring migration,
they stage in northern Iceland and on their
return in autumn they stage in the southeast of
the island. Small numbers have bred in southern
Iceland since the late 1980s [16] . The most important
wintering area of the Greenland population is
the island of Islay in west Scotland, where about
two thirds of the population overwinter [16] . The
wintering distribution extended north and east to
Orkney in the early 1970s [16] . The foraging areas of
Barnacle geese in northwest Scotland have shifted
from under-grazed islands to islands with intensified
agriculture [16] . In Ireland, wintering sites off
the Dublin coast (Lambay Island and the Skerries
Island) have been deserted in the last 10 years, the
Blasket Islands became abandoned from the 1980s,
and two further sites on the east coast (Wexford
Slobs and Lurgangreen, Louth) have not been used
since the 1950s [16] .
No. of individuals
No. of individuals
75,000
50,000
25,000
0
1,000,000
750,000
500,000
250,000
0
1947
1947
1953
1953
1959
1959
1965
1965
1971
1971
1977
1977
1983
1983
1989
1989
1995
1995
2001
2001
2007
2007
2013
2013
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