Mystery Geese St James's Park London (1 Viewer)

[alanquartermain]

Hello,

I saw these in St James's Park in London today. Is one of them a Red Breasted Goose?

 

[Brian2]

Yes the ones on the right are Red Breasted Geese..they're not wild ones though

 

[BirdBoyBen]

Hi,

The first is a Hawaiian goose. this is a captive species and is very rare in the wild. The London parks are important for sustaining their population. The second are indeed Red-breasted geese, the smallest geese in the world. These are also captive, but are becoming increasingly regular at UK coastal sites in the winter.

Hope this helped!

 

[Hotspur]

Its a Nene in the first picture

 

[alanquartermain]

Teriffic! Thanks for the Id's!

 

[stonechat1]

Hi,
The first is a Hawaiian goose. [...] The London parks are important for sustaining their population.[...]

Can you please explain which benefit the population of this species on Hawaii has from park geese in UK? None, I guess.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Because with as few as 30 in the wild in the mid 90s it was probably important to have some somewhere. Still only 2000 wild birds....

 

[stonechat1]

Thanks Paul, I just asked because I could nowhere find that London population is supporting any of the current breeding programs.

 

[tonyfenn]

"Its a Nene in the first picture"
just in case ,Nene goose and hawaiian goose are the same species

 

[bkrownd]

Because with as few as 30 in the wild in the mid 90s it was probably important to have some somewhere. Still only 2000 wild birds....

You mean around 30 in the 1950's. The recovery of nene in Hawai'i depended in part on the genetic contribution of the captive stock in England and breeding efforts there. No reason to discount a potential reserve of genetic diversity at this point. Of course, you don't want them to hybridize.

Nene aren't too numerous, but they're easy to breed and handle and highly visible. Saw a pair on the way to work today. They stand around town in parks and on the grassy edges of roadways, and occasionally get hit by cars.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

You're right! I did mean the mid 1900s!

 

[stonechat1]

[...] The recovery of nene in Hawai'i depended in part on the genetic contribution of the captive stock in England and breeding efforts there.

You mean the duckery of the WWT in Slimbridge.
Source: http://library.sandiegozoo.org/studbooks/birds/hawaiiannenegoose2003.pdf

No reason to discount a potential reserve of genetic diversity at this point.

Don´t get me wrong, but I can´t recognize certain contexts with the park goose in London and Slimbridge.
Do you know how many are in waterfowl fanciers stock? See them sometimes on exhibitions.

Regards,
Roman