Geografische variatie bij ganzen Deel 8 De Witbuikrotgans Branta (bernicla) hrota

According to a recent decision of the Commission for the Systematics of the Dutch Avifaunal List (C.S.N.A.), the Lightbellied Brent Goose is conceived as a species since 1999, with the scientific name Branta hrota. The species breeds in the northernmost parts of both Palaearctic and Nearctic of which the size of the population of the latter will be by far the biggest, with an actual level of about 160.000 birds, merely wintering along the Atlantic coast of the USA. About 20.000 birds of this population are wintering in Ireland, with small numbers staging also on the Channel Islands and on some locations along the northern coast of the France mainland. The eastern population group breeds on Svalbard, Northeastern Greenland and to an unknown extent also on some islands of the Franz Josef archipelago. The actual size of this population will be in an order of 6500-7000 birds. The main wintering areas of these geese are located in the Limfjord-region of Denmark and at Lindisfarne, Northumberland, in the northeast of England. As the Light-bellied Brent seems to have been a scarce visitor to the Dutch coastal areas during the first half of 20th century, there is at least some evidence that these birds were regularly captured in some numbers by geese fowlers on the former island of Wieringen during the 1920s and 1930s. Anyway, during the years 1978-2004 increasing numbers of Light-bellied Brent Geese were visiting The Netherlands as a result of severe cold in the northern part of the North Sea, especially in Denmark. So, numbers could regularly be in an order of several hundreds of birds, with a maximum number of about a thousand geese during early March 1996. However, during normal winters usually very small numbers of these geese are visiting the Dutch haunts.