Abstract
The Lesser White‐fronted Goose (Anser erythropus), smallest of the “gray” geese, is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and protected in all range states. There are three populations, with the least studied being the Eastern population, shared between Russia and China. The extreme remoteness of breeding enclaves makes them largely inaccessible to researchers. As a substitute for visitation, remotely tracking birds from wintering grounds allows exploration of their summer range. Over a period of three years, and using highly accurate GPS tracking devices, eleven individuals of A. erythropus were tracked from the key wintering site of China, to summering, and staging sites in northeastern Russia. Data obtained from that tracking, bolstered by ground survey and literature records, were used to model the summer distribution of A. erythropus. Although earlier literature describes a patchy summer range, the model suggests a contiguous summer habitat range is possible, although observations to date cannot confirm A. erythropus is present throughout the modeled range. The most suitable habitats are located along the coasts of the Laptev Sea, primarily the Lena Delta, in the Yana‐Kolyma Lowland, and smaller lowlands of Chukotka with narrow riparian extensions upstream along major rivers such as the Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma. The probability of A. erythropus presence is related to areas with altitude less than 500 m with abundant wetlands, especially riparian habitat, and a climate with precipitation of the warmest quarter around 55 mm and mean temperature around 14°C during June‐August. Human disturbance also affects site suitability, with a gradual decrease in species presence starting around 160 km from human settlements. Remote tracking of animal species can bridge the knowledge gap required for robust estimation of species distribution patterns in remote areas. Better knowledge of species' distribution is important in understanding the large‐scale ecological consequences of rapid global change and establishing conservation management strategies.
Highlights
The Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus is the smallest of the so-called “gray” geese of the genus Anser (BirdLife International, 2018)
As rivers of the study area are relatively short and uniform by habitat type, we considered each river as one data point for the niche modeling
The modeling process was replicated 100 times and we reported the mean as summering ranges to reduce the sampling bias (Merow et al, 2013)
Summary
The Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus is the smallest of the so-called “gray” geese of the genus Anser (BirdLife International, 2018). An intensive multiyear survey in the area adjacent to the breeding grounds along the Rauchua River, West Chukotka, helped locate a number of breeding/molting groups and separated broods, suggesting that the entire survey area was populated by A. erythropus (Figure 2) This suggests that a single survey in one year, the usual method employed to study distribution of geese in remote areas of East Siberia (Egorov & Okhlopkov, 2007; Solovieva & Vartanyan, 2011), may not allow for an effective understanding of the summering distribution, limiting potential conservation actions for the species. Niche models using both historical records and recent tracking data could help to get better understanding of the summering distribution of the East Asian A. erythropus subpopulation and provide more accurate information for conservation plans including identifying potential threats and prioritizing management actions
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