Small-Scale Funding Agreement (2015-2) ‘Conservation of the globally threatened Lesser White-fronted goose’ Final report Complilled by Sonia Rozenfeld Translation: Vladimir Skvortsov Part 1. Diminishing the threat from spring hunting on Lesser White-fronted Geese (Anser erythropus) in Kalmykya By Sonia Rozenfeld, Alexander Matyukhin, Youry Babitchev, Vladimir Badmaev The Kumo-Manytch stopover is an area of international importance for waterfowl including Lesser White-fronted Goose (LWFG). Research carried out in 2012–2013 showed that the key regions for LWFG conservation are Kalmykya Republic, Stavropolskiy Kray, Rostov District, Astrakhan District, and Zimlyansk Reservoir in Volgograd Disrtict. The project area in Kalmykia Republic verges on Stavropolskiy Kray, Rostov District (Fig. 1). Actually, the geese use the whole area of Manych-Gudilo Lake and trh entire transboundary trritory that includes all the three federal units, depenting on hunting pressure and food accessibility. Thus, it is very important to reduce the hunting impact in the area of interest. Fig. 1. Map of Kumo-Manytch stopover site Dates of spring hunt in 2015 were Kalmykya Republic: March 8–16. Stavropolskiy Kray: March 21–30. In Rostov District the spring hunt is traditionally forbidden; In Stavropolskiy Territory spring hunt is open due to very strong hunting lobby. Nevertheless, the hunt control is well-organized there, the staff numbers 30 inspectors, and the most of key sites of rare goose species are given the status of wildlife sanctuaries (Rus: ‘zakaznik’). At the same time, Kalmykya suffers the lack of funds neeed for hunt control; the whole republic’s patrolling staff only consists of 6 people. That is why we concentrated our efforts on Kalmykya. The Republic of Kalmykya, especially the territory around the lake Manytch Gudilo, is the key spring stopover site for Red-breasted goose and Lesser White-fronted goose (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Distribution of Red-breasted geese at Manytch Gudilo Lake in 2012–2014 (according to tagging data) In both 2012 and 2013, spring hunt in Kalmykya was closed. Unfortunately, the political situation and powerful hunting lobby supported by the Governer, Alexey Orlov, made it impossible to extend the total spring hunting ban in Kalmykya for 2015. However, the list of restrictions, as well as the hunting regulations proposed in the framework of this project, were finally adopted by local authorities (see details at http://www.nexplorer.ru/news__13494.htm). Spring hunt regulation in Kalmykya republic in 2015: 1. Greylag goose was excluded from the list of hunting species for spring time (Ministry of Natural Resourses Order № 383 04.09.2014 (registered 27.10.2014 N 34455) 2. Hunting of Great white-fronted goose and ducks is open only. 3. Hunting is forbidden on the lakes, rivers, water reservoirs and temporary water bodies, as wel as on their islands and shores (not closer then 200 meters from the shore). 4. Hunting was closed in all regional wildlife sanctuaries as well as in the territories of game husbandries of farm “TEG” and hunter association of Gorodovikovsky District (these territories cover a major part of wetlands in Kalmykya). 5. Hunting dates were moved for earlier dates (March 8–16). This particular measure helped avoid strong hunting pressure on geese. It became possible because the early nesting Greylag Goose had been excluded from harvested during spring hunt species. According to monitoring and tagging data (since 2008), the peak of Big geese migration in Kumo-Manytch depression normally falls within the period 8–16 March. The Red-breasted goose (RBG) migration peak usually takes place on 17–22 March, so the species leaves Manytch Lake on 5–12 April (https://www.naturalsciences.be/RBG-RBINS-spring2014/). 6. According to Order # 44 of 26.02.2015 issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Kalmykya Republic, hunting of waterfowl is closed in a total of 1000 hectares within hunting-free zones in the following five key admionistrative regions of Kalmykya Republic: Yashaltinsky, Priyoutnensky, Ikiburulsky, Tzernozemelsky, and Ketchenerovsky (Fig. 3–4). We suggested the following measures aimed at realization of restrictions put by the above Order: 1. Permanent monitoring of geese distribution. 2. Waterfowl number counts. 3. Annual planning of the hunting free zones. 4. Marking all hunting-free zones with warning signboards (each zone was marked with 6 signboards). All hunters demanded the licenses were prevented about the disposition of hunting free zones and constant patrolling of these areas was organized. 5. Based on monitoring results, moving the hunting free zones every year to the sites of huge concentrations of rare waterfowl species 6. Permanent routine patrolling and special poaching control (extended for the post-hunting season, despite the official closure of hunt, since many hunters from neighboring regions will come there to hunt waterfowl illegally). Thanks to these measures, the spring hunt was open only in small part of Kalmykya in 2015. Fig. 3. Order # 44 of 26.02.2015 issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Kalmykya Republic ‘On the measure of rare geese species (RBG, LWFG) conservation in Kumo-Manytch stopover in Kalmykya Republic’ Fig. 4. Hunting-free zones marked with signboards Poaching control To reduce illegal hunting, permanent patrolling by five inspection groups from the Ministry of Natural Resources (12 people, i.e. one group for each five key regions) started on the opening day of spring hunting season. The special focus was on the key sites of rare goose species. In addition, a group of biologists worked at the same time to count and monitor the geese. Special patrolling was also organized on 28–30 March, the last sprig hunting dates in Stavropolsky Kray. Geese distribution Our observations were carried out ion 6–30 March. The first small flocks of arriving LWFG were registered in Stavropolsky Kray on 7 March. A massive geese arrival was observed on the same day. The tens of thousands of geese were coming from west to east through Kalmykya to Stavropolsky Kray. On the same day in 18,000 geese were observed in State reserve ‘Chernye zemli’. During the hunting period, only 100 RBG and 2000 other geese species were observed outside that reserve. The huge concentrations of geese (35 to 37,000 individuals) were observed in Stavropolsky Kray between the lakes Podmanok 1 and Podmanok 2 (N 45.55, E 43.23) on 14–18 March. The massive goose arrival back to Kalmykya was observed just after the close of spring hunt on 16 March. The second wave, with thousands of geese and RBG arriving to Kalmykya (on Chograyskoe Lake) on 21 March, was the day of hunt opening in Stavropolsky Kray. Groups of 6 to 7000 geese arrived to Manytch-Gudilo Lake near the site of Yachalta. A lot of geese also came to the northern part of republic (Yashkulsky District). The feeding conditions in Kalmykya and Stavropolsky Kray are different. In Kalmykya, the area of winter wheat fields is much less, and the quality of the crop is poor. We suppose that the strong difference between spring hunt dates in Kalmykya (7–16 March) and Stavropolsky kray (21–30 March) allows geese to avoid hunting pressure and accumulate enough fat to resume their migration. During the spring hunting period in Kalmykya, the geese had been feeding for two weeks in Stavropolsky Kray on the local fields full of crops. After the opening of the spring hunt in Stavropolsky Kray they went back to Kalmykya (Fig. 5–6). Fig. 5. Geese flock locations and hunting-free zones at Manytch-Gudilo Lake. Arrow indicates migration direction According to data obtained from hunt inspectors, about 30–40 geese were shot in spring 2015 in Stavropolsky Kray. In Kalmykya, according the official data, no geese were shot over the same period. We supposed that most of the RBG had avoided the strong spring hunting pressure, the same could be true for LWFG also. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to see data from observations on LWFGs tagged in 2014, however according the data of spring monitoring (carried out since 2007) in Northern Kazakhstan, the next stopover site after Kumo- Manytch depression, RBG and LWFG arrived there together on 15–20 April, later than the larger geese species. Thus, the taken measures allowed creating a large-scale and permanent refuge within the Kumo-Manytch stopover site during the 2015 spring hunting season. Fig. 6. Flock of geese (about 30,000 birds) on a field Part 2. Monitoring of the breeding population and satellite tracking of Lesser White-fronted Geese (Anser erythropus) in Russian East-European tundra in 2015 By Vladimir V. Morozov Introduction The Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus, LWfG) is s globally threatened species recognized as vulnerable by IUCN and ranked by BirdLife International as ‘SPEC 1’ within Europe, i.e. a European species of global conservation concern. It is listed in Annex 1 of the European Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC, 2 April 1979), in Column A of the Action Plan under the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), and in Annex II ‘Strictly protected species’ of the Bern Convention. The LWfG is strictly protected in both Norway and Russia, the only countries harbouring wild breeding populations of the species. There are relatively few threats for the species on their breeding grounds. However, the population numbers of the goose have not increased because the mortality among LWfG along their migration routes and on their wintering grounds is very high due to heavy hunting pressure (Jones et al. 2008). There are not enough data on staging areas and wintering grounds for the European breeding population. Tagging LWfG with satellite transmitters carried out in the 2011–2014 in different parts of the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra, Russia, brought new and important data on stopover sites and wintering grounds of LWfG.