The rise and fall of the Greenland White-fronted Goose: a case study in international conservation

Greenland White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons flavirostris breed in west Greenland and winter in Britain & Ireland, staging in Iceland on spring and autumn migration.The population declined from the 1950s until the 1970s, but legislation in 1982 removed hunting pressure on the wintering grounds and the population doubled to 35,600 between then and 1999. However, studies at key wintering sites suggested that factors other than hunting regulated local abundance in several cases. Since 1999, the whole population has shown widespread decline.This paper considers possible reasons for the sustained reduction in breeding output that has caused the population decline.There is no evidence for greater predation of nesting attempts, and the declining proportion of potential breeding birds that return to wintering grounds with young is probably related to female body condition and ability to reproduce. Several factors, including June weather and increasing intraspecific competition, show some correlation with falling breeding success, but none convincingly explains the trends.The arrival in Greenland of breeding Greater Canada Geese Branta canadensis, and the consequent interspecific competition with Greenland White-fronts, seems the most likely explanation for the population changes, but hard evidence for this on a large scale is also lacking. If the spread of Canada Geese is responsible, there are few conservation actions that could be taken to help the Greenland White-front. The autumn hunt in Iceland was not originally implicated in the recent decline, but with dramatically falling numbers it may now be important; controlling this hunt may be one feasible way to ease pressure on the population. It must be hoped that White-fronts can find a way of coexisting with Canada Geese in west Greenland, as they do throughout much of the central Canadian Arctic, although the population levels of the former will probably be lower than they were in the late 1990s.