Light aircraft to "mother" endangered geese

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - German scientists plan to help endangered geese find a safer passage for their winter migration south from Finland and Sweden by making them believe that a light aircraft, which will lead the way, is their mother.

About ten German pilots and biologists have come to Sweden to stake out the path they want about 50 Lesser White-fronted geese, considered to be the rarest goose species in Europe, to follow for their winter migration, the Swedish news agency TT reported Saturday.

"We shall spend time with the newly hatched chicks, train them and finally, when it's time to fly, make them believe that the plane is their mother," the head of the project, Wolfgang Scholze, told TT.

The biologists, who expect to launch their project next summer, have calculated that there are only a few hundred of the arctic birds left in the Nordic countries.

The geese have tended to fly south through Russia and down towards the Middle East, but researchers claim that heavy hunting of them in several of the countries has depleted their numbers further still.

The German biologists hope the geese will instead follow their plane to the safer haven of Cologne for the winter, TT reported.

The researchers plan to play surrogate mother during the migrations in the fall and in the spring for three years, after which time the birds should be numerous and old enough to survive migrations with their real mothers.