WHITE -FRONTED GOOSE 

 (Anser alblfrons) 



[DA: Blisgas, DU: Kolgans, EN/US: Specklebelly, White-front, Tule Goose, Speck, 

 Laughing Goose, Specklebelly Brant; PI: Isokiljuhanhi , FR: Oie rieuse, GE: 

 Blassgans, IC: Blesgaes, IT: Oca lombardella , JA: Ma-gan, NW: Tundragas, PO: 

 Ges bialoczelna, PR: Ganso , RU: (White Goose), SP: Ganso frente blanca, Oca sal- 

 vaje, Ansar careto grande; SW: Blasgas] 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



White-fronted Geese breed circumpolarly on tundra around the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea, and Baffin Bay. They nest from Kanin in the east- 

 ern U.S.S.R. to the northwest coast of Hudson Bay and have an isolated breeding 

 population in southwestern Greenland (Bellrose 1976, Palmer 1976a, Cramp et al. 

 1977). About two-thirds of the North American breeding population of approxi- 

 mately 100,000 birds (Bellrose 1976) is found in Alaska; most of the rest inha- 

 bit north-central and northwestern Canada (Palmer 1976a). These geese occur in 

 the southeastern states primarily as migrants and winter residents and reach 

 their peak abundance there along the coasts of southwestern Lousiana and Texas 

 (Map 2) where as many as 66,000 may winter (Bellrose 1976). These geese are 

 rare to casual along the Atlantic seaboard and are scarcely more common along 

 the shores of the eastern Gulf. 



SUSCEPTIBILITY TO OIL POLLUTION 



There is little information on direct effects of oil pollution on White- 

 fronted Geese. Most of some 2,000-2,500 geese soiled with fuel oil in the Hol- 

 lands Diep, Netherlands, in the winter of 1970-71 were White-fronted Geese, but 

 the number that died is unknown (Ouweneel 1971). Judging both from reports on 

 the direct effects of oil on other closely related species and from the White- 

 fronted Goose's preference for habitats inland (Palmer 1976a), we suspect that 

 this species is not especially vulnerable to oiling. Areas of mud-flats and 

 adjacent marsh areas that are used extensively for roosting and foraging and 

 which are likely to be oiled are areas in which these geese will be most sus- 

 ceptible. In such areas the result of oiling probably will be primarily in- 

 direct mortality through loss of food resources rather than direct mortality. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1979 



Krogman, B. D. 1979. A systematic study of Anser albifrons in California. 



Pp. 22-43 in R. L. Jarvis and J. C. Bartonek (eds.) Management and biol- 

 ogy of Pacific Flyway geese. Oregon St. Univ. Bookstores, Inc., Corvallis, 

 OR. 



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