This follows protests from the Estonian ornithological society (Eesti Ornitoloogiaühing), who had appealed the decision to allow the cull to go ahead, amid fears that endangered species which closely resemble the main birds of focus may be caught up in the cull.

The society also said that more humane alternatives for curbing geese damage to crops had not yet been tried.

The Environmental Board (Keskonnaamet) on March 15 issued a permit for the culling of up to 800 Barnacle Geese, 750 Greater White-fronted Geese, plus an unlimited number of Canada Geese, across Estonia's 15 counties.

The populations of these species have been on the rise; they generally stopover in Estonia while migrating, rather than ending up here, feeding on seedlings and other crops while resting.

The ornithological society both appealed the decision to allow the cull and also sought provisional legal protection, which the administrative court satisfied.

Of non-lethal measures, ornithological society's director, Kaarel Võhandu, said: "Merely scaring them off is not effective."

"To mitigate goose damage, it is necessary to plan the deterrence and redirection measures at a large scale," he went on.

This can include tree planting, Võhandu said.

"Large fields need to be partitioned with strips of trees since fear of predators lurking keeps geese and similar birds from straying to the edge of the forest," Võhandu explained.

"Along with continuous, coordinated, and monitored deterrence, safe areas need to be created which offer suitable conditions for geese must, while options to pay support subsidies to farmers in return for creating such areas must be found," he added.

The endangered species that could get confused for more common variants, particularly to the untrained eye, and so get culled too, include Greater White-fronted Geese, Lesser White-fronted Geese and Taiga Bean Geese.

Võhandu said: "Distinguishing similar species without special optical equipment and strong recognition skills is hard, so the inadvertent culling of protected species cannot be ruled out."

This could apply to species that intended to stay, also. "Birds that have already started nesting in the fields may also be endangered during the cull," Võhandu went on.

Under the Nature Conservation Act, deterrence hunting is only allowed in the absence of alternative measures.

The Estonian Ornithological Society says this makes permitting deterrence hunting illegal because, since up to now Estonia has predominantly used scare tactics to reduce goose damage, but no other less harmful and non-lethal measures.

The society also appealed 2021's spring goose cull, which was also suspended by an administrative court.

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