Native as a wild breeder to the remotest Siberian waste, the red-breasted goose will add colour and class to any wildfowl collection. BILL NAYLOR tracks this charmer down
DESPITE stiff competition, the red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis) is, with some justification, often described as one of the most attractive species of wildfowl. Certainly it is one of the most sought-after goose species by waterfowl keepers.
Although it is the smallest, it is also the most striking and colourful of the brent geese: the six species in the goose genus Branta. (In the USA, these are known as brant geese.) The females of some Branta species are marginally smaller than the males and in the red-breasted goose the male, although apparently weighing the same, does appear stockier. His forehead above the cere is more vertical than in the female and pairs are instantly recognisable due to this feature.
Red-breasted geese breed in the northernmost part of Russia, mainly on the Taymayr and adjacent peninsulas. In summer they share this remote wilderness with several other goose species: barnacle (B. leucopsis), brent (B. bernicla), greater white-fronted (Anser albifrons) and lesser white-fronted (A. erythropus). However, like some ageing rock stars, they spend a lot of the year on tour. After breeding and on completion of the annual moult, they migrate south in September. Unlike most other geese, a flock of red-breasted don’t fly in a V-shaped formation, but travel in a loose flock like passerines.
A lengthy journey, which involves a number of stop-overs, ends with most of the travellers overwintering in Bulgaria and Romania, mostly around the Black Sea, with others further east by the Caspian Sea. There are those that choose to terminate their journey in Greece and other parts of southern Europe, as far east as Azerbaijan. In the past, the species overwintered in the wetlands of Iraq.
Vagrants have ended up in other parts of Europe, including Germany, France and the UK, as well as elsewhere, including Cyprus, Egypt and China. There are more than 70 UK records, mainly from the South and East. The relatively large number of sightings is explained by individual red-breasted geese migrating with other Arctic geese, usually brents or barnacles, but sometimes greater or lesser whitefronts, which overwinter every year in the UK and the rest of Europe. (That said, the lesser white-fronted goose is now very rare itself in this country.) Individual red-breasted geese not part of geese flocks are usually considered as escapees from waterfowl collections.
The historical legacy
In ancient times, the distribution of red-breasted goose extended further south. A famous mural called the “Meidum goose”, estimated to be 4,500 years old, was discovered in a tomb south of modern-day Cairo and now resides in the Cairo Museum. It depicts white-fronted geese and an unmistakable pair of red-breasted geese. Unlike the greylag goose, which the Egyptians domesticated (paintings depict domestic greylags being herded), the red-breasted goose was almost certainly at the time of the ancient Egyptians a wild winter visitor to the Nile delta. This vast area of swamps, marshes and fertile plains at the mouth of the world’s longest river was a magnet for migrating birds from Europe and Asia. Even now, although much reduced in size, this waterbird oasis stretches for more than a hundred miles.
The first UK record of the red-breasted goose was of a bird near London in 1776. At about the same time, another one was caught in Yorkshire and kept in captivity for a number of years. London Zoo received this species in 1853, but the first UK breeding – when eggs were hatched under broody chickens – occurred at Woburn Abbey in 1926, where they had been non-breeding residents for 14 years! (Avicultural Magazine, 1940.) Breeding flocks were subsequently established at Woburn, Whipsnade and with Peter Scott at Slimbridge.
Wild and captive diet
In the Arctic, the main food of red-breasted geese is the shoots of cotton grass. Like most geese, this is a vegetarian, feeding on the leaves, stems and green parts of both terrestrial and aquatic plants. In their overwintering areas, they may feed on sprouting seeds in agricultural fields.
Captive geese require grassed areas to graze. However, since the nutrients in grass are reduced in winter and in captivity, they should also be provided with waterfowl maintenance or breeder pellets, depending on the season.
Red-breasted geese invariably become tame and confiding and will coexist in harmony with other waterfowl, though they are even more vocal than other geese. They maintain “conversations” as they go about their daily tasks, or repeat their signature call: a jerky kik-yoik sound.
They will nest in their second year, but it is usually not until their third year that they are successful. Red-breasted goose clutches are sometimes said to be smaller than other geese, but this isn’t always the case: greylags and Canadas lay four to seven eggs, and red-breasted are on record as laying three to 10 in a clutch, though the usual range is from three to seven.
In Siberia, they breed in the second half of June and prefer a site on high ground, ideally close to water for when the goslings hatch. An island is a good nesting site, but they give preference if possible to a nest location within the territory of a rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus), snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) or peregrine while they are incubating eggs. The raptors ignore the geese but deter Arctic foxes – one of the geese’s main predators from entering the territory. Predation of red-breasted geese by Arctic foxes depends on the availability of lemmings, which are the foxes’ main prey. The protection afforded to geese nesting within a raptor’s territory has been shown to considerably reduce predation from foxes, skuas and – another serious predator of geese eggs – the Heuglin’s gull, a subspecies of the lesser black-backed gull.
The decline in red-breasted geese, which the IUCN classifies as Vulnerable, is linked to the reduction in the Arctic of rough-legged buzzards and peregrines from 1969 to 1989, a period when DDT caused bird-of-prey populations to crash.
Like most geese, this species will sometimes pair for life. When red-breasted arrive in May in the Siberian Arctic from their winter quarters – after two or three months of travelling, with a number of stopovers – they immediately seek out breeding areas. These are colony nesters, breeding in small groups of four or six pairs. A nest is a deep depression constructed from vegetation and lined with down. Three to seven olive brown eggs are incubated by the female alone for 23-25 days, while the male is always nearby.
The goslings, compared with those of Anser species, are smaller and coloured grey or brown, with greenish yellow underparts. Like all the goslings of Arctic geese, their thick insulating down renders them vulnerable to overheating in temperate climates, and even during the recent yearly record-high temperatures in Russia. Overheating is a big consideration when geese are being hand-reared – when they are also particularly susceptible to imprinting.
Goslings will obsessively follow the first living animal they see on hatching, including dogs or vertical human beings. (Konrad Lorenz used greylag geese as subjects for his pioneering experiments on imprinting, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.) Imprinted individuals are unlikely to breed. They spurn advances from the opposite sex, as they don’t consider themselves to be geese.
Within a few weeks of hatching, the distinctive red feathers are visible through the goslings’ down and they become fully fledged at eight weeks. Juveniles have less distinctive markings than adults. Their red cheek patch is dull and sometimes missing altogether. Adults have two white bars visible on the closed wing coverts, whereas juveniles have four or five.
Geese stay with their parents longer than most waterfowl do. Red-breasted usually migrate as a family group in September to their winter quarters and keep the unit together on the return journey to the Arctic. Birds may even nest within the small colony which includes their parents. They moult in July or late August and are flightless for 15-20 weeks. Non-breeding birds moult two weeks earlier. After breeding, all geese should be wormed ideally, with a worming powder that’s mixed with pellets or grain.
Bill Naylor has extensive first-hand experience of many bird species from his career as a professional keeper in zoos and birdparks.
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