Survival, Movements, and Harvest of Eastern Prairie Population Canada Geese

• Published in: Wildlife monographs 2004-04 (156), p.1-54
• Main Authors: Sheaffer, Susan E., Rusch, Donald H., Humburg, Dale D., Lawrence, Jeffery S., Zenner, Guy G., Gillespie, Murray M., Caswell, F. Dale, Wilds, Steve, Yaich, Scott C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural seasons; Breeding; Geese; Harvesting seasons; Mortality; Parametric models; Population estimates; Prairies; Survival rates; Wildlife management
• ISSN: 0084-0173; 1938-5455

The Eastern Prairie Population (EPP) of Canada geese (Branta canadensis interior) nests in the Hudson Bay lowlands of Manitoba and migrates through south-central Manitoba, western Minnesota, and Iowa, with a wintering terminus primarily in Missouri, Arkansas, and southern Illinois. The southern range of the EPP historically extended through Arkansas and along coastal southwestern Louisiana and Texas. However, during the 1950s and 1960s a progressive northern shift in wintering distribution occurred as numbers of geese wintering in Louisiana and Arkansas declined while numbers wintering in Missouri increased. Continued temporal and geographic shifts in fall and winter distributions were suspected during the 1980s when numbers of wintering Canada geese increased in Minnesota and declined in Missouri. However, concurrent increases in numbers of Mississippi Valley Population (MVP; B. c. interior) and Mississippi Flyway Giant Population (MFGP; B. c. maxima) Canada geese in portions of the winter range shared with EPP geese confounded interpretations of winter population and harvest surveys. During 1984-93, researchers conducted a cooperative banding and observation effort to improve information on survival rates, harvest rates, and winter distributions of EPP Canada geese. Consistent harvest regulations within 3-year periods during 1984-93, combined with extensive observations of marked geese, allowed for an integrative analysis of survival and movements of this population relative to changes in harvest pressure. We used observations, recaptures, and hunter recoveries of marked geese to provide information on survival, harvest, and movements of the EPP that is needed for long-term management of this population. Annual survival rates of neck-banded adult geese averaged (x̄ ± SE) 0.707 ± 0.019 during 1984-86, 0.651 ± 0.022 during 1987-89 when harvest seasons were restricted, and 0.595 ± 0.028 during 1990-93 when harvest seasons were liberalized. Annual survival rates for neck-banded adults were lower versus leg-banded adults during 1987-89 and 1990-93 (P ≤ 0.05). Mean survival of neck-banded adults during the harvest seasons in 1987-89 was lower than the mean rate in the harvest seasons of 1984-86, primarily due to a low survival estimate in 1989. Survival averaged 0.918 ± 0.0129 during the 1987 and 1988 harvest seasons but declined to 0.665 ± 0.051 during 1989. Restrictions in harvest correlated with a decrease in direct recovery rates and an increase in surviva