Martin Gilbert and his H5N1-surveillance team from the Wildlife Conservation Society have found hundreds of Bean Geese in Khuvsgul aimag (province) in northern Mongolia recently. 21 geese have been caught and full morphometrics, photos, genetic samples and stable isotope vouchers have been taken on all of them. Additionally, the birds have been marked with neck bands provided by Bean Geese expert Thomas Heinicke from Germany.
Thomas has commented on the first bird caught: “For me, this Bean is rather looking like the eastern tundra form serrirostris, which is really unexpected. These birds should breed in the tundra zone of eastern Siberia and Kamchatka.
Further details are eagerly awaited.
Bean Goose. Photo © M. Gilbert
4 comments:
Hello Axel,
is it known what was a status of these geese? Were they moulting or nesting there?
Also: what they write on middendorffii? Are they familiar with this subspecies?
Privet Igor!
Not breeding, but moulting. I am awaiting details, but the team is still in the field, work there continues until autumn. As soon as I get news I'll post them on Birding Mongolia.
Cheers,
Axel
Thank you Axel, I got the email.
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