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GREYLAG GOOSE
Anser anser
Greylag Goose © Mike Weston
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: not listed (introduced population);
Amber (localised Hebridean population);
Amber (in winter, localised and >20% of NW European Flyway population)
Long-term trend
UK: rapid increase
Distribution maps
Maps and statistics from British and Irish
atlases can be viewed here.
Status summary
Apart from a small indigenous population in north-west Scotland and Western Isles, and winter visitors mainly from Iceland, the Greylag Goose is an introduced species throughout the UK. Introduced Greylags have increased very rapidly, at a rate estimated at 12% per annum in southern Britain between the 1988-91 Atlas period and 1999 (Rehfisch et al. 2002). The WBS sample became large enough for annual monitoring in 1992, since when further steep increase has been recorded along linear waterways. Annual breeding-season monitoring in a wider range of habitats through BBS has shown similar strong increases.
 
WBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Greylag Goose
Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
WBS waterways 9 1993-2002 12 202 56 732   Small sample
  5 1997-2002 12 69 4 375   Small sample
BBS UK 9 1994-2003 92 183 120 264    
BBS England 9 1994-2003 73 100 60 150    
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 
Productivity information is not currently available for this species
 
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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2005)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2004.
BTO Research Report No. 385. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 18 January, 2006