Protected goose species in decline due to climate changes

NUMBERS OF the protected Greenland white-fronted goose are in gradual decline and climate change may be the cause. Warmer summer weather in western Greenland may be allowing increased competition from other species to reduce breeding potential.

Their lifestyle and how we have come to understand it provided an engaging talk yesterday in Wexford, just one of dozens of events that took place on the opening day of Science Week Ireland. More than 450 events are planned for the week.

The Greenland white-fronted goose is a regular visitor to our shores, with more than half the entire world population overwintering here, said Alyn Walsh, district conservation officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

We would know very little about the goose were it not for a long-term tagging programme that began in the mid-1980s, he told his audience at the Pumphouse on the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve.

He has been involved in ringing and collaring the geese in their various haunts in Greenland, Iceland and in Ireland for some years. "They live in a tight family group. We wouldn't have known that but for the ringing programme."

His talk, A Year in the Life of Greenland White-Fronted Geese, described how the birds overwinter in Ireland and on Scotland's Isle of Islay. There are about 23,500 of the geese, including 600 to 800 breeding pairs. More than half of them overwinter in Ireland, with a full 9,000 annual visitors to the famous Wexford sloblands.

The geese become very "site faithful", returning year after year to a familiar field, Mr Walsh said.

They leave for Greenland in early April, covering the 800 miles (1,287km) to the west coast of Iceland in about 17 hours.

They rest and feed there for several weeks before leaving for their breeding grounds on the ice-free tundra along the western Greenland coastline, which is another 800-mile journey.

There were just 16,000 to 17,000 of the geese in the 1970s, with the lower numbers due to shooting.