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Greater White-fronted Geese Used 58% Larger Home Ranges During Extreme Drought at Poyang Lake

Greater white-fronted goose standing in shallow habitat
Research · Ecology

Extreme drought changed how wintering greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) used Poyang Lake in China. Researchers compared the same eight GPS-tracked birds across two consecutive winters: 2021/22 with normal water conditions and 2022/23, when the lake reached its lowest water level since 1956.

During the drought winter, the geese used overall home ranges that were 58% larger than in the normal year. Their use of cropland and other non-wetland habitat increased more than 30-fold, while the proportion of time spent in wetlands declined. The size of the most intensively used core areas, however, did not change clearly.

Drought pushed the geese toward farmland

Rather than abandoning Poyang Lake, the geese spread their activity across a wider area and relied much more heavily on agricultural land. They also left the wintering grounds 13 days later in the drought year. Temperature and tailwinds around departure did not explain that delay.

The authors interpret the expanded home ranges and increased use of cropland as behavioural adjustments to the loss of wetland feeding habitat. They suggest that agricultural food may not have fully compensated for poorer wetland conditions, potentially delaying the accumulation of body reserves needed for migration. That energetic explanation was not measured directly, and whether the drought-related changes later affected survival or reproductive success remains unresolved.

Sources and image credit

  1. Wang, L., Meng, F., Liu, W., Zhao, Q., Zhang, J., Xie, Y., Zhang, Y., Duan, S., Li, Y., Cao, L., & Fox, A. D. (2026). Extreme drought affects exploratory behaviour and use of agricultural habitat in wintering Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). Ibis, 168(3), 890–904. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.70033Primary peer-reviewed article first published 11 January 2026. The same eight Greater White-fronted Geese were tracked at Poyang Lake during a normal winter and the severe 2022/23 drought winter. During drought their 95% home ranges increased by 58%, use of cropland and other non-wetland habitat rose more than 30-fold, wetland use declined and spring departure was 13 days later.

Image: Ryanx7 / Wikimedia Commons — wild Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) near Stockton, California, USA, 29 December 2016; representative species image, not a tracked bird from Poyang Lake; cropped to 16:9 · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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