"Goose"

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Ashtochana (Anser anser) is an aquatic fasting bird of the Island family, one of the wild geese that also occur in the Greek area. The scientific name of the species is Anser anser and includes 2 subspecies.

In Greece answers subspecies A. a. rubirostris Swinhoe, 1871 (Eastern Greylag Goose).

The ashthorn is the largest and most common European goose, the "grandson" of the domesticated goose that responds to almost all farms, especially in the countries of the north. Despite its differences from other species of wild geese, it is compared and hybridized with them, but also with domesticated, domestic geese, resulting in it appearing with various patterns and wing colors. The description of morphological elements (see Morphology) refers exclusively to populations living in wild condition.

World population trend
Rised ↑

Nomenclature
The Latin scientific name of the genus, but also the same term in the species, Anser "china", comes from the Indo-European root ghăns, which gave the theme for naming the bird in many European languages (ind. hamsá, German, and Dutch. Gans, Anglosax. g

But the corresponding Greek word, goose, has the same indo-European root ghăns, as the original doric type Hans-os. Later, by simplifying the symphony complex, countertension of the vowel and proportional to the lateral falls, the name hen-os was produced, justifying the male genus of the noun (i.e. not < mens "month root").

The English folk name of the bird, greylag goose, refers to the more general ash coloring of the bird. The same reference is made to the Greek popular name.

Systematic Classification
The species was first described by Linnaeus, under the name Anas Anser (Europe and B. North America, 1758). In 1760, French zoologist M. Brisson (Mathurin Jacques Brisson, 1723 – 1806) transferred it to its current genus.

Hybrids
The ashtray forms hybrids with domestic geese, other wild geese, wild ducks, even swans: Anser anser x Cygnus olor, Anser [anser x brachyrrhynchus], Anser [anser x fabalis], Anser anser [var. domesticus] , Alopochen aegyptiaca (Egyptian goose x Anser anser, Anas platyrrhynchos (green-headed x Anser anser, Anser anser x Tadorna tadorna (barvara), etc.

Geographical spread

The species displays a wide range of distribution in large Old World territories and, in particular, in the Palearctic, Afrotropic, Indonesian ecosystems, while it has been introduced into Oceania (Australia, New Zealand), Argentina and Falkland.
The following figures concern populations living in a wild state, not domesticated birds that are almost all over the world.
In Europe, the species responds to almost all forms of movement throughout the continent, but its populations on the continent are not particularly compact, except in the North Sea, Baltic and eastern regions (United Kingdom)