In the summer of 2005  I had the privilege to join an expedition of the institute Alterra, Wageningen, to Taimyr, the most northern peninsula of Siberia. Already since 1990 the ecology of breeding Brent geese (Branta bernicla) has been studied there by Bart Ebbinge, during three months spanning expeditions almost every summer. Brent geese winter in the Waddensea and elsewhere in western Europe’s estuaries. In spring the geese gain weight rapidly, feeding mostly on the farmers grasses, to prepare for the long flight to their breeding grounds which begins at the end of May. During June, July and August a group of biologists from different countries live in a few primitive wooden huts on the bare tundra, on the coast of the Kara sea at the edge of the Pyasina-delta. The nearest town is Dikson, more than 200 kilometres to the west at the mouth of the giant river Jenisy. Transport to and from the ‘world’ is by helicopter, but around the camp everything goes on foot, or, after the disappearance of the sea ice, with small outboard motor boats. 

Breeding success of the geese is very different between years. This has to do with the abundance of lemmings on the tundra. A high lemming population means a high breeding success for the geese, because all the predators concentrate on the lemming as food, leaving the geese nests and chicks alone. Lemming numbers fluctuate strongly in a three year cycle. This year happened to be a year with a record number of lemmings, which also meant a very high number of predators, which almost all had a high breeding success themselves. I took part in the research activities from mid July to mid August. The main activity in this period is catching and ringing moulting geese, both Whitefronted geese (Anser albifrons) and Brent geese. (All pictures copyright Jaap Mulder)

Map with wintering areas, migration route, temporary staging places (yellow) and breeding areas of Brent geese Branta bernicla. After Madsen et al., 1999.

Several wooden huts, all fitted with a log stove, represent our living quarters. The central hut is the banja (sauna), where we heat up and wash every Saturday. This weekly heat contrasts with our daily windchill of minus 5…

Our camp is rather out of tune with the pristine, empty tundra. Especially around midnight the light often is fantastic. No northern lights, but light from the north.

The emptiness, the silence, the quietness. The idea that you might walk thousand kilometres or more  to the east without a change of scene.

Arctic willows in a tussock of moss. All vegetation is short, the growing season lasts hardly two months.

Small streams drain the water from the usually very wet tundra. During the hottest season the permafrost begins already at a depth of thirty centimetres.

This year the tundra was strewn with holes and runways of the Siberian lemming Lemmus sibericus. Lemmings reproduce mainly in winter, under a thick protective layer of snow.  Already during the winter the predators, as far as they are present (arctic fox, snowy owl) recognize the opportunity to reproduce.

The Siberian lemming is a rodent with a body length of about 15 cm, the size of a Watervole. It has short ears and a short tail. These bodyparts might otherwise freeze off…

Every year Igor Popov determines the lemming density, using the same systematic methods from year to year. He was very busy this season!

Snowy owls Nyctea scandiaca, here a male, had nests everywhere along the coast and on the higher hills, places where the wind blows the snow away, enabling an early start for breeding.

Grey puffs of down in various sizes: the nest of a Snowy owl.

An almost fledged Snowy owl.

Another important consumer of lemmings is the arctic fox Alopex lagopus. In winter it has a thick, completely white fur, but in summer it has a slender appearance with various colours.

In a relatively high number of places we encountered young foxes, which at this time of year already resembled their parents in size and colouring. However, the average number of cubs per den was not high, only about four. That astounded us at first: if there are so many lemmings, an arctic fox litter may consists of as much as 22 cubs!

If there are no parents in the vicinity to warn them, arctic fox cubs are so curious that you can approach them easily.

A barking arctic fox: the cubs have by now fled deep into the den.

Because of the permafrost the opportunity to dig dens is limited to well drained places. Only steep slopes along the coast and streams, and hilltops are suitable. Here six large cubs are playing at the den, with the tundra and the sea in the background.

Swimming through a very cold river does not deter an arctic fox at all. During the long winter they can of course roam everywhere over the ice, and even reach islands far from the mainland. They may even wander over several hundreds of kilometres in search of food, often following polar bears to profit from the remains of their kills.

A completely new phenomenon this year was the Least weasel Mustela nivalis nivalis, a subspecies of the common weasel. Never a single weasel had been observed here, and now they where everywhere! Weasels are, in contrast to most other mustelids like the stoat, able to react quickly upon a fast growing prey population, with large and frequent litters. Weasels live on lemmings too, although these sometimes are larger than themselves.

In the course of spring the lemming winter nests, spheres of dry grass, appeared everywhere from under the melting snow. Many of them had been used as ‘dinner platforms’ by weasels. Besides numerous lemming droppings the hair and clean picked bones of the former occupants were lying on top.

Most of the weasels lived in rocky outcrops in the tundra, and under the piles of driftwood on the beach. We caught and marked them, in an effort to establish their density. They were easy to trap, but difficult to count: our ‘campweasel’ appeared to consist of at least five different individuals!

The driftwood on the beach, originating from the Siberian taiga and transported by the river Jenisy, is of vital interest for us as temporary inhabitants of the tundra. It serves as firewood and for the construction of anything and everything, from bird watching towers to weaseltraps. Here Yasja Kokorev chops firewood, after a tree has been cut with a chainsaw.

The main consumers of the lemmings this year were the Pomarine skuas Stercorarius pomarinus, a kind of predatory gull. They were so abundant, and defended their territories so fierce full against intruders, including humans, that most other predators were expelled to the extreme edges of the tundra and to a few places without skuas. This may be the explanation of the low number of arctic fox cubs: their parents were probably unable to catch enough lemmings for them, being continuously harassed by the skuas.

Vermin as the Pomarine skua is (…), its young are very cute indeed. Until it grabs your nose with its sharp beak, when you come too close…

En route to a place where geese are moulting. Upon spotting us, they immediately plunge into the water, where they feel save.

Catching geese! Geese moult their flightfeathers all at the same time, during the time they have to spend walking anyway, accompanying their chicks. First a trap of standing nets is constructed, than the geese are chased into it. It is as simple as that. However, one species is not the other. Whitefronted geese Anser albifrons for instance are reluctant to leave the water when chased, and do not form very dense groups. Yet we sometimes managed to drive part of the thousands of moulting Whitefronts into the nets. The bleak scenery of the Pyasina delta: unending flats of silt with meandering creeks in between.

Some Whitefronts were fitted with a neck collar with three big characters. So to all bird watchers: have a close look at all groups of Whitefronted geese and try to read the code and note the colour. Some of these geese have already been spotted in  western Europa, as well as in Hungary and near Istanbul.

In total we caught 186 moulting Whitefronts (a world record!), but also one Lesser whitefronted goose Anser erythropus. It has a shorter bill and a beautiful golden eye-ring.

Brent geese Branta bernicla are easier to drive into the nets. They gather in tight groups and are easily directed by a boat. In the background our basecamp.

The Brent geese walk up the beach. At the right the outermost edge of the net can be seen.

Trapped! Bart Ebbinge will close the door and we can start to ring the birds. In total we caught 292 adult and 116 juvenile Brent geese in several actions.

Adult Brent geese and their chicks. The families are very close and stay together at least until the following breeding season. Young of the year can be recognized by the white rims of the feathers on the back. This enables us to establish the breeding success of the preceding season by counting the number of adults and young on the wintering grounds. The proportion of first year birds in the winter of 2005/6 appeared to be about 40%, very high indeed!

The majority of the Brent geese got an individual ring-combination of two colours and two characters. This one reads as: ‘Green J Blue A’.

After a long day of geese chasing the home coming is sweet, even though it is already past midnight. At this latitude the sun sets for the first time on the 12th of August, for a few minutes only.

We are welcomed by delicious pancakes made by weasel-trapper Sim Broekhuizen.

Successful catching days are often celebrated with a sip of wodka, usually accompanied by Russian songs. From left to right Bart, Yasja and Igor.

Reindeer Rangifer tarandus are sparse at this latitude. Sometimes you find an antler, which might be lying there already for decades.

Everywhere on the tundra many waders are breeding, belonging to ten or more different species. These are also subject of research. This is an individually colourringed Little stint Calidris minuta.

At least three ringed chicks of the Little stint try to find a place under the warm feathers of their father or mother.

At the edge of many of the small lakes in the tundra the Red-throated diver Gavia stellata breeds. They feed their one or two young with small fishes from the sea, flying through and fro day and night.

On the islands near the coast also some Glaucous gulls Larus hyperboreus are breeding. It is a large gull without black on its wingtips.

The Ptarmigan Lagopus mutus is one of the few birds which stays on the tundra all year round. Always with good camouflage, white in winter and brown in summer. This ‘famous grouse’ is, in another form however, a favourite in the camp….

This year for the first time a Muskox Ovibos moschatus was observed near our basecamp. This small bovine which looks like a sheep with the head of an African buffalo, has been reintroduced in the east of the Taimyr Peninsula about thirty years ago, from the north of Canada. It had gone extinct long ago.

And then, suddenly, we see a footprint on the beach of the most elusive and secretive tundra animal: a wolf Canis lupus. The watch on the picture is barely 4 cm wide.

In the debris washed ashore you may find amber, mostly however in small fragments only.

We didn’t believe our eyes at first, but there it was, the enigmatic Mammoth Mammuthus primigenius! The tip of a tusk sticking out of the ground. It looks like a piece of wood, but there is no wood on the tundra. What would be underneath? We’ll never know, because the Great Arctic Reserve of Taimyr doesn’t allow digging and taking its natural resources. Which is rightly so.

Alas, time is up! Although it is only mid August, autumn is progressing already. The helicopter comes to fetch us.

A last view of the tundra and the sea. To top