Study On The Summering Distribution And Individual Activity Area Of The Eastern Sub-population Of Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser Erythropus

The Lesser White-fronted Goose(Anser erythropus)is listed as II in China’s National Key Protected Wild Animal List and Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List.The population is undergoing a decline since the twentieth century and it is now protected in all range countries.It’s protected in all range countries.There are three sub-populations of A.erythropus Fennoscandia sub-population,Western sub-population,and the least studied,Eastern sub-population.The extreme remoteness of breeding ground makes it largely inaccessible to researchers.Further clarification of its summering distribution and the environmental factors is a key issue for the conservation of this species.In 2017-2019,we got full migration route of 11 individuals of A.erythropus from the key wintering site of Dongting Lake,China with GPS trackers.This study aimed to get knowledge of the activity area with the biased random bridge(BRB)model and summering distibution of the A.erythropus eastern sub-population by combining GPS tracking data,field survey,and literature review with Maxent.The main results are:1)The BRB modeling shows the activity areas of eleven individuals of A.erythropus.The hot spot is lowland wetlands on the south bank of Dmitria Lapteva Strait.2)The Maxent suggests a continuous rather than patchy potential breeding and summer range of the A.erythropus.The most suitable habitats are located along the coasts of the Laptev Sea,primarily the Lena-Delta,in the Yana-Kolyma Lowland,and smaller lowlands of Chukotka.3)The probability of A.erythropus presence is mostly related to elevation(59.7%),and it mainly uses area sites less than 500 m with abundant wetlands.Other highly influential variables include precipitation of the warmest quarter,distance to streams,and mean temperature of the warmest quarter.The presence probability decreases with the distance to streams,and reach the highest when precipitation of warmest quarter around 55 mm and mean temperature of wettest quarter around 14℃.Remote tracking of animal species can bridge the knowledge gap required for robust estimation of species distribution patterns in remote areas.Better knowledge of species’ distribution is important in understanding the large-scale ecological consequences of rapid global change and establishing conservation management strategies.