Aleutian Canada Geese: A Conservation Success Story

By Cat Lazaroff

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, February 2, 2001 (ENS) - Thanks to recovery efforts spanning more than three decades, world populations of the Aleutian Canada goose have increased from perhaps as few as 300 birds to an estimated 37,000. In the mid-1970s, the subspecies of small Canada goose, found only on a few of Alaska's Aleutian Islands and in areas of California and Oregon, numbered only in the hundreds.

Unprecedented cooperation with foreign nations and state governments, partnerships with private landowners and organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and the California Waterfowl Association, and recovery efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) all helped to bring the bird back. Today, biologists estimate there are about 37,000 Aleutian Canada geese, and that the threat of extinction has passed.

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Once on the brink of extinction, the Aleutian Canada goose has now made a dramatic recovery (Photo by R. Lowe. All photos courtesy USFWS)
"The story of the Aleutian Canada goose is a success story for all Americans," said Dave Allen, USFWS regional director for Alaska. "The recovery of this unique bird shows how effective the Endangered Species Act can be through work with partners, and through innovative scientific techniques and on the ground cooperation."

The Aleutian Canada goose, differentiated from its larger cousins by a distinctive white neckband, nests on islands in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Biologists trace the decline of the subspecies back as far as 1750, when fur farmers and trappers began introducing non-native foxes on more than 190 islands within the goose's nesting range in Alaska.

The fox introductions hit their peak from 1915 to 1936, when fur demand was high. The foxes preyed heavily upon the birds, which had no natural defenses against land predators on the previously mammal free islands.

Scientists recorded no sightings of Aleutian Canada geese from 1938 until 1959, when USFWS biologists sighted several birds on rugged, remote Buldir Island in the western Aleutians.

neck band

The Aleutian Canada goose can be distinguished from its larger cousins by its white neck band
The Aleutian Canada goose was among the first species or subspecies to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973. The first accurate count of the birds in 1975 revealed only 790 individuals, and earlier estimates were less than half that.

In the early 1980s, biologists found small numbers of breeding geese on two other islands.

For the past 35 years, biologists have worked to eliminate introduced foxes from former nesting islands and reintroduce geese. The removal of these predators has benefited many other bird species on the islands, including puffins, murres and auklets.

Besides removing foxes, the USFWS and state wildlife agencies closed Aleutian Canada goose hunting in wintering and migration areas, banded birds on the breeding grounds to identify important wintering and migrations areas, and released families of wild geese caught on Buldir Island onto other fox free islands in the Aleutians.

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Transplanted geese are released on Little Kiska Island (Photo by E. Steele)
In California, the USFWS has fostered cooperative partnerships with local landowners to protect and manage wintering habitat on private land through fee title acquisition, easements and voluntary programs. Important wintering and migration habitat in California and Oregon has been set aside as national wildlife refuges.

As a result of these actions, the population increased to 6,300 birds by 1990, enough to allow the USFWS to reclassify the subspecies from endangered to threatened. The recovery continued through the 1990s, with new populations firmly established on Agattu, Alaid and Nizki islands in the western Aleutians.

The overall population of Aleutian Canada geese is now nearly five times greater than the USFWS recovery goal. But an additional objective of having 50 or more pairs of Aleutian Canada geese nesting in each of three geographic parts of its historic range - western Aleutians other than Buldir Island, central Aleutians and the Semidi Islands - has yet to be met.

The numbers of geese nesting in the central Aleutians and in the Semidi Islands are stable, but probably remain below the 50 pair objective. The bird's recovery has been strongest in the western Aleutian Islands.

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A goose nest on Buldir Island - once one of the birds' last strongholds (Photo by T. Early)
Russian scientists are conducting an ongoing program to reestablish Aleutian Canada geese in the Asian portion of the birds' range. So far, Russian biologists have released 86 geese on Ekarma Island in the northern Kuril Islands. Japanese scientists have observed several of these birds on the wintering grounds in Japan.

Conservation and management of winter and migration habitat in California and Oregon remains a high priority. In addition to acquiring certain lands used by the geese, the USFWS and the state of California are working to reduce competition between geese and humans on other privately owned cropland and pastures.

In California's Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and along the northern California coast, private landowners manage their lands to provide wintering habitat for Aleutian Canada geese. Some landowners plant crops to provide forage for the geese.

"Their efforts, in addition to the Service's land acquisitions and conservation easements, provide thousands of acres of wintering habitat crucial to the recovery of the Aleutian Canada goose," said Michael Spear, manager of the USFWS California-Nevada Operations Office.

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Aleutian Canada geese on Buldir Island (Photo by V. Byrd)
Although the goose has now surpassed most 0recovery goals, the USFWS will continue to monitor its populations. The agency plans to pay particularly close attention to the small number of geese that nest in the Semidi Islands and winter on the north coast of Oregon.

When the subspecies is ultimately removed from the federal list of endangered species, it will continue to be protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

More information can be found at: http://alaska.fws.gov, click on "Aleutian Canada Goose Recovers!" under Issues of Importance.