The population of emperor geese has declined and prompted a closure as agreed to in the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management and Pacific Flyway Council Management Plans. Emperor geese are closed to ALL harvest (birds and eggs) in 2025 and will remain closed until the population increases to a level where harvest may resume. This closure includes the fall-winter season. Please refer to the Regulations for the 2025 Alaska Subsistence Spring/Summer Migratory Bird Harvest for more information.
What is causing the decline in the emperor goose population?
The recent decline of emperor geese is likely a combination of unique biological characteristics that cause the population to grow slowly and human-caused factors like climate change climate change Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
What makes emperor geese different from other Arctic nesting geese and more vulnerable to declines in population?
Emperor geese do not mate until they are 3 years old.
Emperor geese do not breed every year.
Only 1 out of 10 goslings survive the first year.
Even fewer juveniles survive 3 years to become breeding adults.
Most spend their entire lives in Alaska. They must survive winters on the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and Kodiak Island where food is limited, and the weather is harsh. Other geese travel to the lower 48 to graze on agricultural lands where food is abundant.
Emperor geese may be more susceptible to hunting than other Arctic geese, given they spend the majority of the year in remote areas with no hunting pressure. Other species of Arctic geese winter in agricultural areas in the continental US, where there may be significant hunting pressure, and thus their avoidance behaviors may be better developed.
Emperor goose in non-breeding/winter plumage. | Image Details
What do Emperor Geese look like?
The emperor goose is a small and stocky goose with a short pink-lavender bill, gray body, orange legs, white tail feathers, and a clean white head that sometimes gets stained orange during the breeding season. Adults are blue-gray overall, with stark black-and-white edging to the feathers that creates a scaly appearance. The emperor goose gets its western name from the adult’s white crown and hindneck, which appeared to early explorers like ermine trim on a royal cloak. The Yupik name for this beautiful goose loosely means “the one having a parka hood”.
Winter: Adults in winter have a distinctive black throat and white head and back of neck.
Summer: During the breeding season, some adult emperor geese have an orange-stained head and neck.
Juveniles: similar to adults in size but have a dark bill and gray (or mixed gray and white) head and neck.
The emperor goose is truly “Alaska’s Goose”. Eighty percent of the world’s emperor geese breed along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta coast, with the remaining nesting along coastal areas of northwest Alaska and in Siberia. Most emperor geese tough out the winter along the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, and Kodiak Island. They spend the majority of their life in Alaska; some only venturing to Russia to molt.
Migration: along western coast of Alaska and Bering Sea islands, and along the Alaska Peninsula.
Russia: Summer: The north-east Arctic coast of Russia (Siberia). This includes emperor geese from Alaska that fly over to Russia to molt their feathers before returning to Alaska for the winter.
Where do Emperor Geese nest and raise their families?
Majority nest on the Y-K Delta (80-90% of the global population)
Some along Bering-Strait/Norton Sound area (e.g., Seward Peninsula)
Some breed in north-east Russia
They nest in low tundra grasslands near edges of rivers, sloughs, and ponds.
They feed on grasses, berries and leaves of sedges during spring, summer, and fall. Sometimes called the beach goose or painted goose, emperor geese are birds of rocky beaches and brackish wetlands. While on wintering grounds located along rocky coasts, they eat eelgrass, seaweed, sea lettuce, algae, mussels, and barnacles.
Emperor geese lay between 1 and 8 eggs; they lay an average of 5 creamy white eggs.
Will emperor geese nest again if they lose all their eggs?
No. Emperor geese do not re-nest (make a new nest) or replace eggs within a season.
Do emperor geese nest every year?
No. Some mature females do not nest every year.
How many goslings do emperor geese have and how many survive to become adults?
The number of goslings depends on the number of eggs laid, and the number that hatch. Often 3 to 5 goslings hatch.
The number of goslings that make it to adulthood is very low. Only 1 out of 10 goslings that hatch survive to their first year.
How does the US Fish and Wildlife Service count emperor geese and determine the number of geese in Alaska?
The tool used to monitor emperor geese, the Y-K Delta Coastal Zone aerial survey, covers the entire coastal fringe of the Y-K Delta, from the area near Kotlik in the north to Kipnuk in the south. The goal of this survey is to gather big picture information about the abundance of emperor geese (throughout their range on the Y-K Delta), including areas used at higher and lower densities.
The Pacific Flyway Council and the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council selected the Y-K Delta Coastal Zone aerial survey to be the method used to gauge the status of the population and establish hunting regulations.
Emperor geese and other waterbirds are counted on the Y-K Delta using a small aircraft and trained aircrew members. Aerial surveys are flown over areas where emperor geese breed and the aircraft is flown low enough so that the aircrew can properly identify the birds.
Aircrew members count all the geese they see that are within 200 m of the airplane. The numbers are then entered into a mathematical program that estimates the index to the abundance of emperor geese for the entire coastal zone of the Y-K Delta.
The index is a representation of how the birds are doing. When done in a place where the highest concentrations of birds are located, at the same time relative to nesting every year, and using the same crew, an index count can tell us whether the population is going up or down. Surveyors know that they don't count every bird within a survey area, and that not every bird in the population occurs within the survey area. However, by using an index we can come up with a consistent metric to help us understand the status of the population.
This booklet is an informative summary of the 2025 Alaska subsistence spring/summer migratory bird harvest regulations contained in Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 92.
