Figure 1 Historical summer (breeding and molting) range of the eastern
sub-population of Lesser White-fronted Goose. Black contours indicate
known breeding or molting enclaves. A) from Morozov 1995; B) from
Morozov and Syroechkovski-Jr 2002; and C) from Cao et al . 2018.
As new tracking technologies have developed, the investigation and
quantification of spatial and temporal distributions of wide-ranged
migratory species, such as A. erythropus , now typically involve
the deployment of telemetric tracking devices (Jiguet et al .
2011; Pimm et al. 2015). Rapid accumulation of tracking data offers new
insights to assess distribution ranges and to explore habitat
preferences (Kays et al . 2015). For example, tracking data can be
linked with environmental conditions and used in ecological niche models
to predict the overall space use by a population (Jiguet et al .
2011). In this context, this paper aimed to quantify to the potential
summering range of the East Asian A. erythropus sub-population by
combining GPS tracking data, historical ground survey records, and
literature sources. Using bioclimatic, geomorphological, land cover, and
human disturbance layers, we used Maxent (a niche modelling technique,
Elith et al. 2006), to predict the summering habitats of A.
erythropus within East Siberia in an ensemble forecast framework, i.e.
averaging predictions from many models (100 in this study) to account
for data uncertainties and model variability (Pearson et al. 2006).
Niche models using both historical records and recent tracking data
could help to get better understanding of the summering distribution of
the East Asian A. erythropus sub-population, and provide more
accurate information for conservation plans including identifying
potential threats and prioritizing management actions.