Status of the Kamchatka Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus ) Population and Factors Affecting It.

Abstract

—Kamchatka, in northeastern Russia, has an area of 432,300 km2 and includes Kamchatka Peninsula, a continental portion, and some islands. An estimated 500 (330–660) pairs of Gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) breed on Kamchatka. The Kamchatka Peninsula is also an important region for migrating and wintering Gyrfalcons. Within the last 20 years, Gyrfalcons have declined on Kamchatka by a factor of 2–2.5. We have been unable to identify natural factors that would explain such a reduction. Phenological conditions in breeding areas are essentially unchanged, and the dynamics of bird and mammal prey populations appear natural. Peaks in Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) numbers have occurred every 9–11 (usually 10) years, and without synchrony of cycles on Kamchatka Peninsula and in the Koryak uplands. Anthropogenic factors are negatively influencing the Gyrfalcon population. Whereas economic activities have irreversibly transformed only 0.3 % of places suitable for Gyrfalcon breeding, increasing road development splits large natural landscape complexes. Shooting of Gyrfalcons and casual trapping are known to occur, but poaching has produced the largest damage to the population. It began to have a commercial basis in the early 1990s with the mass collection of clutches and chicks from nests in the Koryak uplands and the northern part of Kamchatka Peninsula, and more recently, the illegal catching of birds during fall and early winter has greatly increased throughout. Annually, at least 10–15% of the Gyrfalcon population is removed from Kamchatka as contraband. Poachers prefer to catch young females and the lightest-colored birds. We expect the condition of the Gyrfalcon population to deteriorate on Kamchatka. First, we do not expect poaching to decline. Rather, it continues to increase, despite the growth of penalties. Second, according to the ‘Strategy of Social and Economic Development of Kamchatka Through 2025,’ a priority of regional development is the mining industry, power, and transport communications. Our experience suggests that these will lead to large scale changes of natural habitats and biodiversity depletion. Received 22 February 2011, accepted 17 April 2011. WE STARTED GATHERING information on the Gyrfalcon in Kamchatka Peninsula and adjoining regions in 1971, concurrently with other studies. In 1990, the illegal trapping of the species plagued the region, and we have given more attention to Gyrfalcons since then, while trying not to publish any new information so as not to jeopardize the falcons’ breeding locations. By the beginning of the 2000s it was evident that the illegal trappers had studied the Kamchatka population well enough, and our information would not be of any news to them. In 2005–2007, within the framework of the government funded federal program “Monitoring of animals of the Red Data Book of Russia” we carried out a survey of the Gyrfalcon population in the Kamchatka Peninsula (Figure 1). We focused on the middle and southern parts of the peninsula to establish the southern limits of the species’ distribution, describe nest sites, study the ecology of the species, and gather anecdotal information from local people (Lobkov et al. 2007a, 2007b, 2008). In this paper we incorporate the results of the 2005– 2010 studies of the species. They include surveys of the Vyvenka River (2008), Penzhina River basin (2009), and Olytor coast at the Severnaya and Shlupochnaya bays (2010). We also include the data on birds confiscated from poachers, and discuss measures to combat illegal trapping.