The first six gifts in the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” are birds (seven, if you consider that “five golden rings” may have originally referred to goldfinches or the ringed plumage on a pheasant’s neck). To celebrate the holiday season, BirdTLC is reimagining the lyrics with native Alaskan birds. Visit our blog every week until the end of December for fun, festive facts about wildlife.
An Emperror Goose standing on ice. Photo credit: Thorsten Hackbarth, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Emperor geese a’laying is certainly a gift after the species’ sharp decline in the late 20th century. This stocky blue-grey bird goes by many names. Its Yupik name, nacaullek, loosely means “the one having a parka hood”. Western explorers dubbed it emperor because its white head resembled fur trim on royal robes. Painted goose likewise refers to its distinctive plumage. Beach goose evokes the bird’s coastal habitat—although mostly a northern resident, strays have been observed as far south as Hawaii. Yet the birds’ life cycle centers on the Last Frontier, earning it the moniker of Alaska’s goose.
Most the Emperor Goose population breeds on the Yukon-Kuskoquim Delta. Paired females lay one to eight eggs in nests made from dead plant material and down (occasionally other females’ nests). After almost a month of incubation, hatched goslings leave the nest in less than a day. They can walk and swim just hours after birth, following their parents through the brief Arctic summer.
Family time doesn’t end when autumn arrives. “The emperor goose is pretty unique in that it hangs out with its kids all winter long,” says Robyn Thomas, who studies the birds’ wintering ecology and population dynamics as part of a joint project between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Emperor Goose families travel together to winter habitats along the Aleutian chain, where parents show their young how to forage. Offspring may even return to associate with mom and dad the following season.
Even with devoted care, only one in ten goslings survive their first year. Still fewer reach the breeding age of three. This slow reproductive rate makes Emperor Geese less resilient against population-level threats, such as when their numbers plummeted from more than 100,000 birds in 1982 to fewer than 45,000 in 1986. Hunting and oil pollution likely contributed to the decline. Coastal waterfowl are also highly vulnerable to climate change.
A hunting ban and 30 years of conservation efforts helped the Emperor Goose population slowly recover. The most recent surveys, from 2014-2016, counted an average of almost 86,000 birds. Subsistence harvest resumed in 2017, but may be suspended again if the population drops below a certain threshold. Research like Thomas’ will help us better understand what these birds need to thrive, while advocacy from organizations like BirdTLC will help keep “Alaska’s goose” a’laying!
If your “true love” is Alaskan birds, connect with BirdTLC all year long for education and advocacy.
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