New Wintering Site Of The Greylag Goose ANSER ANSER (ANSERIFORMES) In The South Of The European Russia

The article provides data on the new wintering site of the greylag goose Anser anser (Linnaeus, 1758), nesting in Western Manych (Veselovskу water storage reservoir: 47°06′N, 40°54′E), registered in Crimea in 2023. Recording the position of geese during wintering outside the breeding area was confirmed by marking the geese with metal rings, colored collars (yellow, numbers RXXX) and GPS-GSM transmitters (ECOTONE). Greylag geese wintered from 2015 to 2022 only in Ciscaucasia reservoirs: Krasnodar, Varnavinskoe, Kryukovskoe water storage reservoirs, Kuban and Primorsko-Akhtarsk floodplains, 240‒300 km from the breeding area. For the first time, the wintering of 2022/2023 of the “Veselovskaya” population of greylag geese was registered on the inland waters of the Kerch Peninsula (Crimea) 475 km from the place of “birth” based on the localization of the goose marked with a transmitter. A hypothesis has been put forward that the emergence of a new wintering area is associated with an increase in hunting pressure on the gray goose in the Ciscaucasia. In 2021, the greylag goose was included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation (29 administrative regions, including the Republic of Crimea). The exception was the south of European Russia, including the Krasnodar Region, where the greylag goose from the Western Manych population winters. Hunting for greylag goose has shifted from other regions to the south of European Russia. Almost simultaneously with the inclusion of the greylag goose in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, the terms of the autumn hunt, which ended on December 31 in previous years, were extended until January 20, which increased the impact on the wintering group. About a third of the tagged greylag geese returned were taken in the Krasnodar Region in January. Thus, the movement of part of the wintering greylag goose group to the Kerch Peninsula into a “protected zone” will allow it to survive in conditions of increasing hunting pressure. Probably, the creation of a protected area in the Eastern Azov region will help preserve the greylag goose in Russia.

, greylag goose, , wintering, GPS-GSM transmitters