Current Status of Anserinae Wintering in Azov-Black Sea Region of Ukraine

Abstract

In the article is analyzed own field data of the authors and scientific publications on the wintering of Anserinae in the Azov-Black Sea region of Ukraine in 1900–2017, but the main data was obtained in frame of international mid-winter counts (IWC) in 2005–2017. It was found that 9 species of Anserinae occur in this region during the different seasons of the year: Anser anser — nesting, wintering and migrating; Rufibrenta ruficollis, A. albifrons, A. erythropus, A. fabalis — migrating and wintering; Branta canadensis, Branta leucopsis, Branta bernicla, Chen caerulescens — vagrant or birds which flew away from captivity (zoo etc.). Eulabeia indica — is possible vagrant species. The most numerous wintering species is A. albifrons, common — Rufibrenta ruficollis, not numerous — Anser anser, the other species are not met annually and registered in a very small number. There was almost tenfold drop in number of wintering geese in the Azov-Black Sea region of Ukraine during the period of counts. The main reasons of such reducing of geese amount are the followwing: weather and climate conditions, changes in the forage acessibility, hunting and poaching pressure, poisoning as a result of deratization of agricultural lands, and from 2014 — the militarization of the Syvash area and stop of water supplying of Crimea through the North Crimean channell. It is likely that the factors mentioned above led to relocating of wintering areas of Anserinae, and resulted in decreasing of their amount in this region.

The diversity-area relationship for waterbird communities in small artificial reservoirs over winter

“…Over 320 bird species have been recorded in the country (e.g. Kostin 1983, Prokopenko et al 2012, Kucherenko et al 2017b), and millions use the peninsula as migration and overwintering stopovers, many of which are of global and local importance (Kostin 1983, Akimov & Radchenko 2009, Ivanov et al 2015, Andruyshchenko et al 2019, Kucherenko et al 2020). Most of these sites are concentrated in Natural Reserves, 12 important bird areas (Dudkin 2003) and six Ramsar wetlands (Ramsar sites information services 2022, https://www.ramsar.org/wetland/ukraine).…”

“…For example, Eastern Syvash, the nearest important hotspot for birds, especially in winter, is located more than 100 km from the reservoirs, while the closest distance to the sea coast from the reservoirs is from 30 to 50 km. Many studies have examined bird diversity and ecology along the Ukrainian Azov-Black Sea coast and Crimea (Andruyshchenko et al 2015, 2019, Kucherenko & Kalinovsky 2018, Kucherenko et al 2020). These have highlighted the significance of wetlands for different species in terms of phenology, dynamics and distribution (e.g.…”