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

We estimated the size of 30 defined populations of geesewintering in the Western Palearctic (including five releasedor reintroduced populations of three species).Fourteen populations were accurately estimated from almostfull count coverage or robust sampling and ten werewell estimated based on more than 50% of their total beingcounted. An estimated 5.03 million geese winteredin January 2009, up on 3.10 million in January 1993.Only two populations numbered less than 10,000 birds(Scandinavian Lesser White-fronted Goose and Svalbard/Greenland Light-bellied Brent Goose, the formerbeing critically small within restricted range). Eighteenpopulations numbered 10,000–100,000, eight 100,000–1,000,000 and the largest 1.2 million individuals. Of 21populations with known longer term trends, 16 are showingsignificant exponential increases, 4 are stable and onedeclining. Amongst these same populations, five are decliningsince the 1990s. Long term declines in productivitywere found in 7 out of 15 populations. Amongst mostof the 11 populations for which data exist, there were nosignificant long-term trends in annual adult survival. Improvedmonitoring, including demographic, is requiredto retain populations in favorable conservation status.