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

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