Data extraction from published sources
A total of 13 records of breeding or molting A. erythropus were compiled from historical surveys along the rivers dated after 1998. Originally 11 of these records were not attributed to GPS coordinates and to geo-reference them, we converted descriptions of records (river name and distance to the nearest village) to coordinates.

Capture methods and data tracking

Using techniques described in Lei et al . (2019a), individualA. erythropus captured, during the winter of 2016/17 at East Dongting Lake, China. This lake is the most important wintering site for the species, supporting more than 70% of the East Asian sub-population (Wang et al . 2012). A Total of 88 A. erythropus were captured and tagged by experienced hunters using baited clap traps, and 11 individuals returned with a completed wintering-migration-summering-migration-wintering cycle (Table 1).
Table 1. Summary of eleven tagged Lesser White-fronted Geese used for this study.