The European neckband-programme for Greater White-fronted Geese (1998 – now)

The Greater White-fronted Goose is the most abundant goose wintering primarily in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium and in minor numbers also in England. Its joyful and characteristic call fills the winter air along all main rivers and lakes in the Netherlands and Germany. Major numbers are to be found in Emsland (Germany), Friesland (NL), Niederrhein (Germany), along the Rhine and IJssel rivers (NL), in Zeeland (NL) and in Flanders (Belgium). The enthousiasm of Helmut Kruckenberg was the major trigger to start this joint Dutch-German project. For many decades Dutch old-time goose-catchers were involved in the catching and ringing programme of Alterra. Predominantly Greater White-fronted and Bean Geese were caught and ringed with metal rings only. Given the huge amount of work involved in properly dealing with the many resightings, we hesitated a long time before embarking on this project. Helmut garantueed to store all data in a database and annually inform all volunteer observers about the birds they observed. On a special German website this and extra information is made available for the German observers. This new joint website (www.geese.org) will hopefully lessen the burden and inform all ring-readers more effectively. Most Greater White-fronted Geese have been ringed in the Netherlands and also most observations are from the Netherlands

Initially we only had the opportunity to provide a map for the Netherlands, but this new version has a new map facility (using google-maps) so that observers from all countries can now directly find the localities where geese are observed and enter their data.

In the evaluation of the new Dutch policy to concentrate geese in a limited number of sites (the so-called ‘Beleidskader Faunabeheer’ the Greater White-fronted Goose is one of the key species.

Observers in Flanders (Belgium)

The network of Flemish observers is encouraged to use the predefined sites as outlined by Eckhart Kuijken and Christine Verscheure. They supply all Flemish observers with detailed maps and centrally store all their observations which are then added to our joint database. This enables Flemish observers also to check out their ’own’ birds through this website. A list of these sites can also be found after clicking on the relevant button.
Also the possibility to update one’s old data later on through this website exists for Flemish observers.

What do the neckbands look like ?

Bart Ebbinge met gans S47

Helmut Kruckenberg met gans A05

All neckbands bear an inscription with three symbols. One upright symbol and next to it two symbols (either letters or numbers) which have to be read from top (the head of the goose) to bottom. (see pictures). This means that when a goose is grazing from left to right, having its neck in an almost horizontal position, it is easy to read the double inscription. However, when a goose is grazing from right to left, this double inscription is upside-down and thus more difficult to read. Experienced neckband-readers know how to deal with this. Combinations like SH, can therefore sometimes be reported as HS. The key message is to start from the head of the goose while reading the inscription. As example the lightgreen ('lime') neckband C08 is shown in three different positions. The C is positioned upright, whereas from top to bottom one should read 08. Is the goose grazing from left to right this 08 looks like 80, but you should still report it as 08, because you have to start from the head of the goose.

Lime (light-green) neckband C08	C08 from left to right	C08 from right to left

You have to enter the inscriptions as three symbols starting with the single symbol. The colour of the neckband you have to indicate in the next column by clicking on the correct option.

Are neckbands harmful for geese?

Even though we realize that neckbands cause more problems for geese than legrings, we have chosen for neckbands because in the tall grass where Greater White-fronted Geese usually graze, inscriptions on legrings are extremely difficult to read. By now many neck-banded Greater White-fronts have flown several years from the wintering grounds to their Russian breeding grounds and are still in good shape. Neckbanded Greater White-fronts also return with new offspring from Russia, so we are confident that their behaviour is not seriously hampered by these neckbands. Obviously researchers are always worried whether the way of marking is affecting the birds they study It is a difficult trade-off between the need to know more about the behaviour, reproduction and survival of individuals, which is essential for better protection of the species as a whole, and the effect this may have on the individual birds you catch and mark.

On the following maps one can see how well volunteer observers cover almost the entire range of Greater White-fronted Geese in western Europe. Further east our knowledge about the distribution of geese relies almost entirely on the recoveries we receive from hunters that report the rings of the birds they shoot.