Increase in abundance and distribution of wintering barnacle geese in Denmark

• Main Authors: Nyegaard, Timme, Heldbjerg, Henning
• Other Authors: Rabaça, João E., Roque, Inês, Lourenço, Rui, Godinho, Carlos
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: University of Évora 2019
• Subjects: Barnacle goose; Branta leucopsis
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/increase-in-abundance-and-distribution-of-wintering-barnacle-geese-in-denmark(1c90f12f-9b6f-4e73-bbc6-d5298bf8e63e).html; http://www.ebcc2019.uevora.pt/book-of-abstracts/

The population of wintering Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis in Northwestern Europe has increased enormously during the last decades. A large proportion of these occur in Denmark during winter. These birds are part of the Russian/Northwest European population, which is the largest and fastest growing population with an increase from 20,000 individuals in the 1950’ies to estimated 1.2 million individuals in 2014. DOFbasen (www.dofbasen.dk) is the main database on casual bird observations in Denmark and provides the data for a description of the population changes in this study. Despite the unsystematic nature of the data, the very high number of records of birds (1.5 million annually, 22 million in total) from all over the country makes these data highly useful to describe changes of distribution and phenology in the Danish nature. This knowledge is relevant for the management of a species like the Barnacle Goose. During winter, the species often forage on winter crops. Damage to agricultural crops has been registered all over the wintering range, with grassland as the most affected crop followed by winter and spring cereal. This have led to increasing conflicts with farmers due to the negative impact the foraging has on production and thereby the economy. Here we present recent changes in the abundance and distribution in the Danish Barnacle Goose winter population.