Current estimates of goose population sizes in western Europe, a gap analysis and an assessment of trends

Abstract

We estimated the size of 30 defined populations of geese wintering in the Western Palearctic (including five released or reintroduced populations of three species). Fourteen populations were accurately estimated from almost full count coverage or robust sampling and ten were well estimated based on more than 50% of their total being counted.

An estimated 5.03 million geese wintered in January 2009, up on 3.10 million in January 1993.

Keywords

• goose
• population size estimtes
• Europe
• assessment of trends
• survival
• productivity