From Polar Ural in European Russia and southwards in 2004-2005  

The ringing site in Polar Urals

In summer 2004 the Fennoscandian Lesser White-fronted Goose Conservation Project and the Goose, Swan and Duck Study Group of Northern Eurasia (GSDSG) started a cooperation project to unveil the migration route from one of the most important breeding areas for the Lesser White-fronted Goose; the Polar Ural in European Russia. 

On 20th and 21st of July, Vladimir V. Morozov and his colleagues from the GSDSG caught three adult Lesser White-fronted Geese. These were then equipped with 20» and 30» grams satellite transmitters from Microwave Telemetry, Inc».  The birds got satellite transmitters with IDs 10865 (female), 10866 (male) and 24677 (male).

A thorough description of the Polar Ural area, European Russia, can be found in Morozov 2000: Surveys for LWfG in the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra, European Russia, in 1999 (PDF - 680KB»).

A river valley in the Polar Urals, European Russia. Photo by V.V. Morozov

Results

For the first time the whole migratory journey of a single Lesser White-fronted Goose has been mapped. Two of the three Lessers that where tagged in Polar Urals crossed the Ural Mountains, while one continued down the Ob river valley to Kazakstan. From there the journey went through Azerbaijan and Turkey, before ending up in the Mesopotamian Marshes in today's Iraq. Here the goose used several wetlands  that by BirdLife International have been given the status as very important sites for birds (IBA's). For further details you can look at the results that have been reported in BirdLife International's magazine World Birdwatch». The article "A wild goose chase across Central Asia to the Middle East" can be downloaded here as a PDF (670KB)»  Another article is available in the Russian journal Casarca: Morozov, V.V. & Aarvak, T. 2004. Wintering of lesser white-fronted geese breeding in the Polar Urals. Casarca 10:156-162.

The day to day data and summaries can still be viewed here:

Day to day tracking results: autumn 2004 to autumn 2005»  

 

Various news coverage of the present project

• WWF, WWF newsrom» 8 December 2004
• ARGOS, ARGOS protecting wildlife» 2004
• BirdLife, BirdLife trains Iraqi conservationists», 13 December 2004
• AME info, Arabian environment», 14 December 2004
• Sonera Plaza, Satelliittikiljuhanhi yllätti tutkijat», February 2005
• verkkouutiset, Kiljuhanhet aloittaneet muuttonsa Mesopotamiasta, 30 March 2005
• YLE, Prisma Studio, Satelliitti paljastaa kiljuhanhen muuttoreitin salaisuudet, 13 April 2005
• BirdLife, Lesser White-front is back from Baghdad, 17 June 2005 
• BirdLife Ukraine, on the web site of the Ukrainian BirdLife partner- Вперше міграційний шлях малої гуски був досліджений повністю»
• Arctic Bulletin 04.05, Linking Mesopotamia to the Arctic, 6 January 2006

Resources on Iraq environment and birdlife

• Through use of Landsat satellite imagery it has been revealed that in the last 15 years, wetlands that once covered as much as 20,000 square km in parts of Iraq and Iran have been reduced to less than 15 percent of their original size. Through the damming and siphoning off of waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers , the ecosystems have been decimated and, as a result, a number of plant and animal species face possible extinction. More about the vanishing marshes in Iraq can be found at Earth Observatory.

• The United Nation Environment Programme’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment published an report in 1991 (in PDF format) entitled The Mesopotamian Marshlands: Demise of an Ecosystem». [Print Resolution» (13.3 MB)]. This report gives a well founded insight into the environmental problems of present day Iraq . UNEP is continuing the monitoring of environmental change in Iraq . Much more information about this can be found here»

• CNN 5 November 2004 - Scientists fight to save Iraq's marshes».

© The material on the present page concerning satellite telemetry on Lesser White-fronted Geese and the results presented are copyrighted by the Fennoscandian Lesser White-fronted Goose Conservation Project and the Goose, Swan and Duck Study Group of Northern Eurasia, and should not be reproduced by any means without written permission. Contact Tomas Aarvak for details (see "contacts pages" for contact details).

The project is sponsored by the Convention on Migratory Species, the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.