Page 37 - An-introduction-to-Svalbard

Pink-footed goose. Upper: Brent goose. Lower: Barnacle goose.

The pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) is the largest and most numerous goose species
on Svalbard. Despite these facts, it is difficult to detect, because it is relatively more shy than
the other geese. In late August the geese gather in flocks and by the last week of September,
they will have gone south to their winter habitats in Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Holland.
They return to Svalbard in early May each year.

The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) is smaller and nests in small colonies or in single pairs
both on the tundra and the cliff walls, mostly along the west coast of Spitsbergen. Thanks
to successful protection along their migratory routes to Holland and their winter quarters
there, the number of individuals is now almost 30,000 – compared to only a few hundred
geese fifty years ago. In recent years, some barnacle geese have chosen not to make the long
migration northward, and currently the species nests also in southern Sweden, Denmark,
Germany and Holland.

The brent goose (Branta bernicla) is the smallest goose on Svalbard. It arrives in Svalbard from
its winter quarters in western Denmark and the British Isles in late May - early June. Brent
geese almost always nest on tiny islands, where the Arctic fox cannot reach them. The majority
of the brent goose population on Svalbard nest on Tusenøyane south of Edgeøya.

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