 I J Řien/NOF
The Lesser White-fronted Goose is classified by BirdLife as Vulnerable, with a decreasing world population of 25,000-30,000 birds
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Lesser White-front is back from Baghdad
17-06-2005
The first Fennoscandia Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus to be tracked to its wintering grounds has returned safely to the place in Russia’s polar Urals where, in the late summer of 2004, it was fitted with a satellite tag. The sole survivor of three tagged birds, the goose undertook an epic journey through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and eastern Turkey, before arriving east of Baghdad, Iraq, in late November.
"A basic need in the struggle to save the Lesser White-fronted Goose from extinction is to increase the knowledge on the staging sites and the wintering areas of the species," explained Ingar Jostein Řien of of NOF (BirdLife in Norway). "The Central Asian migration route is relatively well known as far south as northern Kazakhstan, but the route further south is virtually unknown." (For full story see World Birdwatch, June 2005.)
The tagged bird spent the winter moving between lakes and marshes around the river Tigris. Many of its chosen sites have been classified by BirdLife International as Important Bird Areas (IBAs), although their condition in recent years is unknown, and at least one of them has never been visited by ornithologists.
"For the first time the whole migratory journey of a Lesser White-fronted Goose has been mapped. Congratulations to all involved, but especially to Vladimir Morozov of the Russian Research Institute for Nature Protection, who caught the bird and mounted the satellite transmitter." —Ingar Jostein Řien, NOF
In late March the bird began its return journey via Dagestan and Kazakhstan. By the mid-May it was back in Russia, and was recorded within a kilometre of the tagging site near the village of Vorkuta on 20 May. The bird was still present in the same area as of 11 June.