Rare geese decline in UK as climate warms in the Arctic

RARE species of geese are in decline in the UK because warming in the Arctic is causing fewer birds to migrate south.

A study that tagged various species of geese and monitored their movements and density since 2006 has found vastly fewer young come with adult animals when they travel to Britain.

Nowhere else on Earth are experts seeing such rapid changes than in the Arctic where greenhouse gas emissions are creating warmer winter temperatures and ice loss.

Food sources for the geese are also changing as seasons shift due to climate change, meaning the plants they eat mature at different times of the year.

The research by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, published in Ecological Insights, found nest predation by polar bears, which in warmer climates find it hard to catch seals for food, is a factor in fewer young geese growing up and making their way to the UK.

Kane Brides, WWT’S research officer, said: “The Arctic is in the process of entering a new ecological phase, which potentially carries a huge cost for humanity.

“However it can be difficult to track these changes and their impact on the different species that inhabit these huge expanses which include barren land, Arctic seas and boreal forests.” Svalbard and Greenland barnacle geese returning to the Solway Firth, between Cumbria and Scotland, have been arriving with an ever decreasing amount of young over the past decade.

Scientists say as well as being preyed on by polar bears, even though the geese try to arrive on their breeding grounds earlier each year, sometimes foregoing the traditional staging sites, the fresh vegetation sources they need

‘The Arctic is in the process of entering a new ecological phase, which could carry a huge cost to humanity’

for their young are maturing too swiftly under the changing climate.

When Greenland white- fronted geese linger in Iceland due to the availability of fresh grass growth on the improved pastures and arable stubbles under the warmer conditions, they increasingly expose themselves to illegal hunting or more violent Atlantic storms when they try to make the crossing to Scotland or Ireland.

Tracking and marking data suggest the Taiga bean geese may be staying longer on the continent, too, or avoiding Scotland all together.