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Home / Latest News / 2008 / 5 / 13 /

Top Geese flight report update - one feared missing in action

 

Breaking News from WWT Slimbridge:

Barnacle Geese in flight (credit Richard Taylor-Jones)Two of our three Greenland white-fronted 'Top Geese' have left Iceland and successfully made it up and over the treacherous 1.5m high ice cap to spend the summer on their breeding grounds in West Greenland, but there are fears our third goose may have perished before having the chance to try.


WWT has teamed up with BBC Radio 4's World On the Move programme and Bristol University for Top Goose, a project to follow the migrations of three Barnacle geese, Greenland white-fronted geese and Brent geese and compare how much fuel they use to complete them. This morning (Tuesday 13 May) World On the Move will focus entirely on the Top Goose project, broadcasting live from Iceland at 11am.


Two of our Greenland white-fronted ´Top Geese´, fitted with transmitters in Scotland earlier this year, GFG and Lightning, made it from Iceland to West Greenland in roughly nine hours, first flying over the sea together, then separating to cross the ice by different routes. Unfortunately, we don´t know what´s happened to our third Greenland white-fronted 'Top Goose', Miles. There are fears he may have perished in Iceland -perhaps shot by a hunter - as his transmitter has failed to send any data since 26 April. Although it is likely he has not survived, there are hopes he is enjoying West Greenland with the other geese, either minus his transmitter or with a broken transmitter in tow.


Over the past few days, World On the Move and WWT have been in Iceland to catch up with the rest of the Greenland white-fronted geese before they leave, and follow a specialist catch team as they attempt to fit the satellite transmitters to our three remaining ´Top Geese´ - the Light-bellied brent geese. Over the weekend, WWT´s Larry Griffin trekked to the last GPS position received for Miles in the hope of finding something - but no luck.


Both GFG and Lightning ended up near Sønderstrøm in West Greenland, completing their journeys with around half their initial fuel load remaining in order to give them plenty of fat reserves to see them through the first few days if food is scarce. Both geese achieved energy heights of around 200 km, although GFG crossed the ice rather far south and then had a long haul up the west coast, which used up more fuel.


GFG, Lightning and - fingers crossed - Miles will now enjoy the perfect summer conditions enjoyed by the 25,000 Greenland white-fronted geese that spend the summer in West Greenland. It is hoped they will pair up, breed and then return to the UK this autumn complete with their young.


Two of our three Barnacle 'Top Geese' have started their migration from Scotland to Svalbard in Norway, Donald is currently on the Vesteralen and Duff on Helgeland, whilst Thor is happy to remain on the Solway Firth for the time being.


When will he leave? Will we ever find out what happened to Miles? Have the three Brent ´Top Geese´been successfully caught and tagged in Iceland?
Listen to World On the Move on Radio 4 today (Tuesday 13 May, 11am) or listen again on www.bbc.co.uk/worldonthemove, or follow the fortunes of all nine 'Top Geese' at wwt.org.uk/topgoose.