Tracking the Autumn Migration of the Bar-Headed Goose (Anser indicus) with Satellite Telemetry and Relationship to Environmental Conditions

Abstract

The autumn migration routes of bar-headed geese captured before the 2008 breeding season at Qinghai Lake, China, were documented using satellite tracking data. To assess how the migration strategies of bar-headed geese are influenced by environmental conditions, the relationship between migratory routes, temperatures, and vegetation coverage at stopovers sites estimated with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were analyzed. Our results showed that there were four typical migration routes in autumn with variation in timing among individuals in start and end times and in total migration and stopover duration. The observed variation may be related to habitat type and other environmental conditions along the routes. On average, these birds traveled about 1300 to 1500 km, refueled at three to six stopover sites and migrated for 73 to 83 days. The majority of the habitat types at stopover sites were lake, marsh, and shoal wetlands, with use of some mountainous regions, and farmland areas.

Waterfowl Spring Migratory Behavior and Avian Influenza Transmission Risk in the Changing Landscape of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway

“…We obtained a land cover data layer depicting the rice paddies within China at 500-meter resolution during 2009 (see details in Zhang et al, 2011) to compare with the dBBMM model generated for each bird with a full spring migration. The percentage of the flight corridor representing habitat availability and migratory stopover sites representing habitat use were determined with the tabulate area tool in ArcGIS for the dominant agricultural types (rice, wheat, and pastoral) as defined by Pei et al (2016).…”

“…The lack of relevant data on waterfowl migration ecology is only exacerbated by the rapidly changing agricultural landscape in China. For instance, agricultural lands such as rice paddies, which are critical to migratory waterbirds (Elphick, 2010;Fujioka et al, 2010), are shifting to the northeast (Zhang et al, 2011;Liu Z. et al, 2013;Dong et al, 2015;Gilbert et al, 2017). In order to understand how changes in rice paddy distribution alter wild bird migratory behavior and the domestic-wild bird interface, appropriate baseline data on wild bird movement ecology are required (Meyer et al, 2017).…”

Population trends and community composition of migratory waterbirds in three emerging wetlands of global significance in southwestern Bengal, India

“…(Takekawa et al 2009;Hawkes et al 2011;Zhang et al 2011). This winter visitor, however, was restricted to a few wetlands of Birbhum District in southwestern Bengal (Sinha et al 2011).…”

Comparative analyses of the gut microbiota among three different wild geese species in the genus Anser

“…In our study, three long‐distance migratory wild geese belonging to the same genus Anser were selected for comparison purposes due to the different altitudes of their habitat. First, the Bar‐headed goose ( Anser indicus ), vast majority of populations breeding and wintering on Qinghai‐Tibet plateau , is a good representative of high‐altitude geese species. Second, the Greylag goose ( Anser anser ) is widely distributed throughout the Palearctic region.…”