Least ConcernSnow Goose
Anser caerulescens
8 countries24 parks
Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 4 species of goose, spread across 2 families (Anatidae, Anseranatidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 55 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It migrates in flocks of hundreds of thousands that turn the sky white.
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The colour morph is controlled by a single genetic locus in which the dark allele is incompletely dominant over the white.
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The breeding colonies of the dark morph were not discovered until 1929, after a deliberate search by Dewey Soper that lasted six years and covered more than 48,000 km.
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It appears in ancient Egyptian paintings; today it is invasive in several European countries.
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Its scientific name means "fox-goose", from the Greek alopex, fox, and chen, goose, for the reddish tone of its back.
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In ancient Egypt it was considered sacred and it appears in papyri and illustrations; the Greeks and Romans also kept it in their domestic flocks.
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It is the only anseriform in the world that is not left unable to fly during the moult: it renews its flight feathers gradually, while ducks, geese and swans spend weeks unable to take off.
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It is frequently polygamous: a male lives permanently with two females that lay in the same nest and raise the brood together, a trio that can last for years.
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