The Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis fabalis in Latvia: occurrence, origin and hunting

Abstract

The aim of this study was to fill knowledge gaps regarding occurrence, origin and hunting of the Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis fabalis in Latvia. Field observations during the period 1 January 2011 – 20 May 2019 showed that up to at least 550 individuals from the central sub-population made stop-overs in westernmost Latvia in early spring, usually during the last ten days of February. Up to at least 1750 individuals from the eastern sub-population arrived about one month later and made stop-overs in eastern Latvia. Few individuals were reported staging in autumn. A hunting bag study, where hunters submitted images of bean geese they had shot, was launched in 2014. The proportion of the hunted geese reported by images was low in the first two years, but ranged from 9.5 to 12.4% during the following years. Based on this bag study, the number of Taiga Bean Geese hunted annually in the years 2014 – 2018 was estimated to be 0 – 20 birds.