Seasonal and regional differences in migration patterns and conservation status of Swan Geese (Anser cygnoides) in the East Asian Flyway

作者：Iderbat Damba, Junjian Zhang, Kunpeng Yi, Huashan Dou, Nyambayar Batbayar, Tseveenmyadag Natsagdorj, Batmunkh Davaasuren, Lei Cao, Anthony David Fox · 发表于：Avian Research · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s40657-021-00308-y · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Avian ecology and behavior、Genetic diversity and population structure、Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Abstract Background The Swan Goose ( Anser cygnoides ) breeds across Mongolia and adjacent China and Russia and winters exclusively in China. It is globally threatened, showing long-term major range contractions and declining abundance, linked to habitat loss and degradation. We remain ignorant about the biogeographical subpopulation structure of the species and potential differences in their migration timing, stopovers and schedules, information that could be vital to effective conservation of different elements of the species population, which we address here with results from a telemetry study. Methods In 2017–2018, we attached GPS/GSM telemetry devices to 238 Swan Geese on moulting sites in three discrete parts of their summering area (Dauria International Protected Area, Central Mongolia and Western Mongolia), generating 104 complete spring and autumn migration episodes to compare migration speed and nature between birds of different summer provenances. Results Birds from all three breeding areas used almost completely separate migration routes to winter sympatrically in the Yangtze River floodplain. Although many features of the spring and autumn migrations of the three groups were similar, despite the significantly longer migration routes taken by Western Mongolian tagged birds, birds from Dauria Region arrived significantly later in winter due to prolonged staging in coastal areas and took longer to reach their breeding areas in spring. Among birds of all breeding pro...