Investigating Home Range, Movement Pattern, and Habitat Selection of Bar-headed Geese during Breeding Season at Qinghai Lake, China.

Ruobing Zheng,Ze Luo,Lacy M Smith ,Scott H Newman ,Jeffery D Sullivan ,Diann J Prosser ,John Y Takekawa ,Binbin Yan

doi:10.3390/ani8100182

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe Bar-headed Goose is an important species in Asia, both culturally and ecologically. While prior studies have shown Qinghai Lake supports one of the largest breeding areas for Bar-headed Geese, little is known regarding the species movement ecology during the breeding season. In this study, we examined Bar-headed Goose home range size within the breeding grounds at Qinghai Lake and documented their daily movement patterns and habitat selection. We also identified several key breeding sites surrounding Qinghai Lake. Our research provides valuable information on this sensitive species that could help develop the strategy for waterfowl conservation and disease control.The Bar-headed Goose is the only true goose species or Anserinae to migrate solely within the Central Asian Flyway, and thus, it is an ideal species for observing the effects of both land use and climate change throughout the flyway. In this paper, we investigate the home range, movement pattern, and habitat selection of Bar-headed Geese (Anser indicus) during the breeding season at Qinghai Lake, which is one of their largest breeding areas and a major migration staging area in the flyway. We identified several areas used by the geese during the breeding season along the shoreline of Qinghai Lake and found that most geese had more than one core use area and daily movements that provided insight into their breeding activity. We also observed the intensive use of specific wetlands and habitats near Qinghai Lake. These data provide interesting insights into the movement ecology of this important species and also provide critical information for managers seeking to understand and respond to conservation concerns threatening Bar-headed Geese, such as landscape and habitat changes.

Highlights

The Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) is a colonial nesting waterfowl species that breeds in CentralAsia and winters as far south as the southern tip of India [1]
Bar-headed Geese serve as ideal indicator species for this region as they are only one of the two species of true geese numbering in the thousands to winter on the Indian subcontinent [5], and previous telemetry work indicates that Bar-headed Geese migrate entirely within the Central Asian Flyway [6,7]
We believe that variation in their movement was likely driven by different breeding activity and examining daily movement patterns provided insight into the breeding status of individuals

Summary

Introduction

The Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) is a colonial nesting waterfowl species that breeds in CentralAsia and winters as far south as the southern tip of India [1]. The migration of Bar-headed Geese to high elevation breeding ranges is fairly unique among Anserinae, as they are only one of the few species in this subfamily (others are the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis), and the Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides)) that do not migrate to breeding ranges at subarctic or Arctic latitudes [5]. In addition to their unique migratory behaviors and cultural significance, Bar-headed Geese present a unique opportunity to study how the changes within the Central Asian Flyway may affect waterfowl populations. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, where a sub-population [4,8,9] totaling as much as

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