An enigmatic world of the Great Snipe

The Great Snipe (Gallinago media) is the rarest representative of subfamily of Common Snipes (Scolopacinae); in Ukraine, they are most well-known to the hunters preferring to hunt with pointing dogs. At all times, these Sandpipers (as well as the Jack Snipes (Lymnocryptes minimus) visiting Ukraine during migration only) were considered as the first (that is the best) wading birds; gourmets always rated Great Snipes highly due to their taste qualities. Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) is the fourth representative of this subfamily; it inhabits only forests thus being essentially different from its other fellows that prefer flood-lands and marshes.

The Great Snipe inhabits only forest and forest-steppe zones — from Scandinavia and Denmark in the west to Yenisei river in the east. In the north of Europe its natural habitat reaches bush-tundra areas of Russia and coasts of the Barents Sea, while southern boundary of the habitat in Europe goes through the south of Voronezh region (Russia), north regions of Ukraine, western Poland and the Baltic states. For the most part, these birds winter in the eastern and south-eastern Africa, as well as in Palestine and Mesopotamia.

Regrettably, however in Europe, from the beginning of the 20th century, there is permanent decrease in number of the Great Snipe, as well as disappearance of the Great Snipe habitats. In the recent decades, this process has become acute so that majority of countries now regard the Great Snipe as the species of preferential protection. In addition, it is included to the Red Data Book of the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) as well as to the lists of Globally threatened birds in Europe (that is, the birds approaching the verge of extinction). By the way, in addition to the Great Snipe, "the honour" to be included to the above-mentioned lists were "given" to 22 other species from 523 ones that were ascribed to Europe.

To date, the biggest populations of these sandpipers are in Russia (150-250 thou. pairs), Byelorussia (12-20 thou. pairs), and Norway (5-15 thou. pairs). The birds feel themselves best of all in Norway and Sweden where no decrease in their numbers was observed at all.

Unfortunately, the general trend, which is connected with decrease in number of the Great Snipe habitats, exists in our country as well. As compared with the beginning of the twentieth century, today natural habitat of the Great Snipe has moved to the higher north of Ukraine. These birds disappeared in Kharkiv, Poltava, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskiy, and Vinnytsya regions. No information on registration of this species has been come from Cherkasy region and Carpathian Mountains in the last years as well. This resulted in situation where, in fact, nesting areas now exist in Polesye only: in the valleys of Dnieper, Desna, and Pripyat. At the same time, population of the Great Snipe (that were usual inhabitants of marshes for many years) does not exceed 500-700 pairs — this is very low figure even for Polesye region of Ukraine.

As we have already mentioned, the Great Snipe settles in river valleys, on flooded waterlogged meadows with tussocks and well-developed stand, as well as on Polesye swamps and marshes of various types (presumably peat- or sedge-lands). By the way, the Great Snipe prefers less flooded places as compared with the Common Snipe. At the same time, the Great Snipes usually fly here approximately in the middle of April, that is, two weeks later than the Common Snipes do.

The most marvellous event in the life of the Great Snipes — group lekking of males — occurs immediately after their arrival. It is a stunning sight, a real eye-catcher resembling a well-directed performance! The show begins at dusk and lasts a whole night — this fact gives a flavour of certain fabulousness and unreality to this theatre. If you have observed lekking of the Great Snipes just for once, you will never forget this real holiday of life!

It was my good fortune to be present at several lekking events; one time I even could stay during several hours right in the centre of lekking area where I have went stealthily before nightfall. Being equipped with a camera and field glasses I have been lying motionlessly while the Great Snipes selflessly lekked around me at the distance of several metres – they bounced up and down, flapped their wings, run from place to place, chased each other, scuffled with each other, and made melodious trills with their beaks. Having completed each lek display, a male rises on his toes, as if he wants to back off, fans his tail out and then you may see white underparts flaring up in the darkness for a moment.

Each male occupies his own lekking lot (approximately 1 sq. m) and protects it aggressively in expectation of his long hoped-for female, his chosen one. Although, the truth is that it would be more appropriate to say "a choosing female" rather than "a chosen female" because Great Snipe females choose their male partners at their own discretion. And then… they fade into obscurity together in order to continue existence of the species. In general, Great Snipe males differ from their congeners due to quite an irregular mating behaviour that is characterised by a scientifically elaborated term — "promiscuity". To put it bluntly, males have no permanent pairs and do not take any part in nest construction and chick feeding. When a female cares for chicks already, her former partner continues his lek displays waiting for another behindhand potential bride. However, there is no sense to blame such careless "daddies" — should the nature so decided, it needed so. By the way, to date there is no exact explanation of the reasons, according to which thee Great Snipes behave themselves in such a manner. It is also unknown whether males visit other lekking sites, and if they do so — what is maximum distance between the sites?

It seems that in our years flood-lands in the middle flow of Desna are one of the few regions of Ukraine that has suffered from the above-mentioned "benefits of civilisation" to a lesser degree: it is the region where the Great Snipes still build their nests and lekking sites populated with two or more dozens birds still exist. What is more, there is even a certain increase in the number of birds today. The Great Snipes have begun visit those Polesye regions that are situated on the right bank of Dnieper: Volynska region, valley of Pripyat and its tributaries. Most likely, this is a "positive" result of substantial decline in industrial and agricultural utilisation of flood-lands during recent decade, especially in the frontier Polesye regions.

Although it is too early to state today that we observe beginning of restoration of the Great Snipe population in the country, but it is already necessary to take any and all measures aimed at conservation of the Great Snipe and protection of their habitats. Inclusion of this species to the Red Data Book of Ukraine, establishment of ornithological preserves within nesting and lekking territories, exclusion of this species from the list of those that may be hunted — these are initial measures that must be taken in respect of one of the rarest representative of the World of Feathered. Of course, it is also necessary to carry out large-scaled studies of the modern state of the Great Snipe in Ukraine, conduct long-term monitoring and access to the international environmental programmes. To date, the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds (USPB) has already developed the National Action Plan for the Great Snipe Conservation (2000). It is also expected that in the nearest future Ukraine will be included to the international programme of studying and conservation of this species according to the resolution made by the meeting of the International Task Force for the Great Snipe (Estonia, 2002); this meeting was held under the auspices of BirdLife International.

I would like to believe that there will be a day in the nearest future when drained Polesye biotopes and normal water regime in flood-lands will be restored and a splendid representative of the World of Feathered — the Great Snipe — will return to its original habitats in order to breed chicks, make lekking, and adorn our meadows and marshes by its presence.

G. G. Gavris,

Doctor of Biology,
USPB National Coordinator for the Great Snipe