Barnacle Geese on Kolguev Island 57
©Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Wildfowl
(2013) 63: 56–71
The Barnacle Goose
Branta leucopsis
has
increased dramatically in numbers in the
Western Palearctic from the mid-1970s
onwards (Madsen
et al
. 1999), and the
exponential growth of the Russian-breeding
population continues into the 21st century
(Fox
et al
. 2010). In the late 1970s, the only
known breeding colonies in Russia were
confined to Novaya Zemlya and Vaigach
Island. The increase in population size has
been associated with a prominent westward
shift in breeding range, with new colonies
established on Kolguev Island (Ponomareva
1990; Gavrilo 1991), the western Kanin
Peninsula (Filchagov & Leonovich 1992),
and later along the southeast Barents Sea
coast between the Kanin Peninsula and
Vaigach Island (Syroechkovsky 1995). These
new colonies were no longer associated with
traditional nesting habitats (typically steep
bluffs inaccessible to terrestrial predators),
but were also situated on the flat expanses of
the coastal salt marshes and adjacent sand
and gravel spits (Syroechkovsky 1995).
In 1994, the biggest known Barnacle
Goose colony in the Russian arctic
(estimated at
c
. 5,000 pairs) was found at the
mouth of Peschanka River on the east of
Kolguev Island. The colony was distributed
across various delta habitats, including
coastal sandy spits, peat hummocks within
sedge-moss bogs, flat drained open willow-
moss tundra along river banks and many
other open flat habitats, all potentially
accessible to terrestrial predators (Morozov
& Syroechkovsky 2004). Despite the
presence of Arctic Foxes
Alopex lagopus
and
Red Foxes
Vulpes vulpes
on this lemming-free
island, predator abundance did not seem to
be high in the mid-1990s (especially in the
river delta and on the coastal spits)(Morozov
& Syroechkovsky 2004), and so their impact
did not prevent a rapid increase in nest
numbers within these colonies. The colony
in the Peschanka River delta continued to
grow to an estimated 20,000 breeding pairs
by the early 2000s (Anufriev 2005).
We studied the geese breeding on
Kolguev Island in summers of 2006, 2007,
2008, 2011 and 2012, with the aim of
estimating
their
numbers,
habitat
distribution, breeding biology and factors
affecting their breeding success. Kolguev is
famous for its large numbers of breeding
Barnacle Geese, Tundra Bean Geese
Anser fabalis rossicus
and White-fronted
Geese
Anser albifrons
, particularly the latter
species (Morozov & Syroechkovsky 2004;
Kondratyev & Zaynagutdinova 2008;
Kruckenberg
et al
2008; Mooij
et al
. 2011;
Kondratyev
et al.
2012). The Barnacle
Goose population on Kolguev has received
comparatively less attention, although
estimates of total numbers, breeding
biology and habitat distribution in
2006–2008 have been published elsewhere
(Kruckenberg
et al
2008; Kondratyev &
Zaynagutdinova 2008; Mooij
et al
2011;
Kondratyev
et al
2012). This paper provides
further information on the dramatic
expansion of Barnacle Geese across the
island from the mid-2000s onwards
(including new data from 2011 and 2012),
describes the nature of this expansion, and
assesses the potential for further population
growth in this key breeding area.
Study area
Kolguev Island (68°41’–69°30’N, 48°12’–
50°18’E) is 83 km west–east, 93 km south–
