Frenchman Christian Moullec, a regular visitor to Air Shows in Britain is preparing his annual migratory flights across Europe to save the lesser white-fronted goose from the hunter’s gun – and extinction. Working with a team of scientists, Moullec spends the Autumn months flying betweenLapland and the Netherlands and Germany

escorting flocks of geese along their migratory route.  The birds have come to treat the Frenchman and his microlight as a parent bird and fly with him in formation. Each night he and the geese put down in chosen wildfowl reserves dotted across Europe, safe from indiscriminate hunters

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Moullec has perfected his mother goose role by flying with flocks of barnacle and greylag geese.  These training flights are used specifically as tests in order to know what to do when he comes to fly with young lesser white-fronted geese to lead them to safe wintering grounds in Europe. From here, the young lesser white-fronted geese have been trained to memorise the alternative route they have been shown by Moullec and his scientist colleagues.

Moullec says of his expeditions, “The aim of my work with the geese is to highlight and to denounce hunting abuses in France, especially hunting by night, when it is not possible to differentiate between protected and non-protected species.”

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