Geese are breeding at a former nuclear weapons test site in the Arctic

Some pink-footed geese person begun migrating to the Arctic land of Novaya Zemlya successful the summertime to breed, astir 1000 kilometres distant from their accustomed breeding tract connected the land of Svalbard.

Conditions connected Novaya Zemlya, a Russian land successful the Arctic, utilized to beryllium excessively acold for breeding geese. But with outpouring conditions coming earlier successful the twelvemonth due to the fact that of planetary warming, the land has go suitable, says Jesper Madsen astatine Aarhus University successful Denmark. Over 15 years oregon so, this colonisation has established a caller migration way to Novaya Zemlya and caller stop-over points on the way.

“It’s a immense surprise,” says Madsen. “It’s truly astonishing to spot this.”

Some different birds person been changing their ranges successful effect to planetary warming, but this is the astir melodramatic displacement of this benignant ever observed successful a migratory bird, helium says.

There are 2 populations of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus). One overwinters successful the UK and Ireland and migrates to Iceland and Greenland to breed successful summer.

The different overwinters successful the Netherlands and Denmark, migrating to Svalbard to breed. In spring, this colonisation flies on astir of the magnitude of Norway, resting successful places, earlier the agelong formation implicit the oversea to Svalbard. The birds instrumentality on this way successful autumn.

But, successful the 1990s, radical began spotting individuals and tiny flocks of pink-footed geese successful confederate Sweden during outpouring and autumn. By the 2000s, larger flocks were often being spotted.

To find retired wherever they were going, successful 2018 and 2019, Madsen and his colleagues enactment GPS tags connected 21 geese. Half of them flew to a portion of Novaya Zemlya that was used for investigating atomic bombs up until 1990. Not adjacent Russian biologists are allowed to spell there, says Madsen, truthful their beingness wouldn’t person been discovered without the GPS trackers.

These birds are migrating implicit Sweden and Finland alternatively than flying on Norway, and the GPS information besides shows that the birds are nesting there. Many are returning with offspring.

The researchers estimation that the Novaya Zemlya colonisation has grown to astir 4000 birds already. Because of regular non-GPS tagging of immoderate birds on the Denmark to Svalbard route, they person been capable to archer that immoderate of these geese were antecedently travelling to Svalbard and person switched routes, with young geese mostly apt to change.

The team’s proposal is that these geese learned the caller migration by copying taiga legume geese (Anser fabalis). Some taiga legume geese alert to Novaya Zemlya successful precocious outpouring to moult and regenerate their formation feathers, alternatively than to breed.

“That’s the champion mentation we have,” says Madsen. If correct, it would beryllium a uncommon illustration of cultural cognition transmission occurring betwixt species.

Madsen thinks the displacement is happening not conscionable due to the fact that of the warming of Novaya Zemlya, but besides due to the fact that of expanding difficulties with the accepted migration route. Pink-footed geese are present having to vie with barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) for nutrient astatine stop-overs, and changes successful farming practices are besides reducing nutrient availability.

“This is simply a truly neat survey that combines traditional, old-school vertebrate observations and counting, with tagging, GPS and clime data, to uncover a singular caller story,” says Richard Gregory astatine the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science successful the UK, who wasn’t progressive successful the study.

“On the 1 hand, it provides anticipation that migratory vertebrate taxon mightiness beryllium capable to respond to clime alteration implicit comparatively abbreviated periods, but raises alarm bells implicit the gait of change,” helium says.

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