Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus)

The Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus) is an exclusively eurasian breeding species, originally breeding in the southern part of the tundra as well as the northern forest tundra between Fennoscandia and the Bering Strait. Since the first population estimates of the 1950’s, a drastic decrease in numbers was recorded from about 100,000 individuals in the 1950’s to less than 25,000 birds in the 1990’s.

During the 1930’s regularly flocks of c. 50,000 Lesser Whitefronts were recorded in some European wintering sites and during the 1950’s the total wintering population in this part of the species range was still estimated on more than 50,.000 birds. In the 1990’s numbers recorded in this region during midwinter counts never exceeded 10,000 and breeding birds merely are found in a minor part of the original breeding range. The fennoscandian population was estimated on about 10,000 birds in the 1950’s but to date the population is estimated on 300 - 500 birds and less than 50 breeding pairs.

The Lesser White-fronted Goose is included in Apendix 1 of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement AEWA under the Bonn Convention, in Apendix II of the Bern Convention and in Apendix I of the EU-Birdsdirective