The Greenland White-fronted Goose

The Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons breeds more or less continuously around the Arctic from Alaska through mid-continent Canada, in West Greenland and from European Russia to Far East Asia. The discrete population of the species, the Greenland White-fronted Goose which summers in west Greenland and winters in Britain and Ireland is the subspecies Anser albifrons flavirostris – the most morphologically distinct (being larger and most dark coloured) and most genetically distinct of all the other forms found in the world. This is what the fuss is all about!

Individuals from this population are amongst the largest and genetically distinct of any Greater White-fronted Geese anywhere in the world. This makes us think they have been relatively isolated from other forms for very many generations. At the moment, their numbers globally are small, currently numbering just over 18,000 individuals in 2023, having declined rapidly from some 35,600 at peak in 1999.

The Greenland White-fronted Goose summers and nests in west Greenland between Nuuk (64 degrees N) and Upernavik (72 degrees N). In autumn, it migrates to Iceland, where it stops off in the western and southern lowlands from mid-September to mid-November, before wintering in northern and western Scotland, Anglesey and mid-Wales, as well as in western, midland and northern Ireland. The greatest concentrations occur in winter at Wexford Slobs in SE Ireland and on Islay in the Inner Hebrides. The geese again stage during April in southern and western Iceland on migration back to their summering areas in spring.

Both legislation and voluntary agreements are in force. The goose cannot be given international Red List status by IUCN because it is a subspecies however, national governments have their own red and amber listings as shown in the table below. For precise legal protections read more here.

Research and volunteer actions are both key to the conservation of this goose….

Fieldwork across the full range of the GWGS habitat from Greenland to Britain and Ireland contribute greatly to our knowledge…

We rely on an army of volunteers to help us report back on breeding success and numbers, especially in the wintering grounds. Your sightings of Greenland White-fronted Geese can help us gain information about this threatened bird.

A great deal; from magazine articles to scientific journal articles. Find out more using this page as your starting point.

Back in 1977 a group of students at Aberystwyth University started planning an expedition to Greenland to find out more about the local flock of Greenland White-fronted Geese. Find out more.

Goose ecologists spend a lot of time gazing at goose bottoms, but there is a good scientific reason for doing so! Geese store the fat in their bodies that they later need to fuel long migration flights and to invest in laying a clutch of eggs and incubating them on the breeding grounds. Much of this fat is laid down under the skin and around body organs, but many wild goose species accumulate a thick block of fat in their abdomen, just under the tail. In the spring prelude to migration, this accumulation of fat becomes very conspicuous as the abdomen become distended. So much so that you can fairly accurately judge the fat content of a goose’s body from the shape of it’s rear end!