India, Oct. 16 -- A small brown goose with a white neck ring nearly vanished from the Pacific, and the world is pointing the finger at the fox. Researchers at Humboldt State University said in a Wildfowl review that Aleutian cackling geese were feared extinct until a small group was found on Buldir Island in 1962. The same review puts the population at 790 birds in 1967. By 2022, Ducks Unlimited estimates the flock had grown to about 215,000.

The Aleutian goose is small. A big male only weighs about 4.5 pounds. It's dark brown, black-necked, and has a white cheek patch.

These geese nest on some of the Aleutian Islands that arc west from Southwest Alaska toward Russia. The story starts in 1741, when the islands were discovered for Russia...