CANADA GOOSE MANAGEMENT CANADA GOOSE MANAGEMENT Copyright (c) 1968 by Dembar Educational Research Services, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. First Edition. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-59326. iv 'NADA GOOSE MANAGEMENT Current Continentol Problems ontl Progroms A Symposium Edited By Dr. Ruth L. Hine, Bureau of Research, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Prof. Clay Schoenfeld, Departments of Journalism anti Wildlife Ecology, The University of Wisconsin Dembar Educational Research Services, Inc., Box 1148, Madison, Wisconsin 53701 Twenty centuries of "progress,, have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account, and a high opinion of himself, but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment, nor a conviction that such capacity, rather than such density, is the true test of whether he is civilized. The practice of game management may be one of the means of developing a culture which will meet this test. -ALDO LEOPOLD THIS BOOK has grown out of the proceed­ contribute significant information on the ings of a symposium on Canada geese spon­ present problems, new research, and future sored by the North Central Section of The prospects of Canada geese on a continental Wildlife Society and held in conjunction basis. with the 29th Midwest Fish and Wildlife Serving with us on the special committee Conference at Madison, Wisconsin, on that organized the Canada goose symposium December 13, 1967. The goose symposium were C. Dennis Besadny, Wisconsin Depart­ was the second in a biennial series. The first, ment of Natural Resources, Madison; Arthur on wood duck management and research, S. Hawkins, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was held at Lansing, Michigan, in December, Minneapolis, Minn.; Harvey K. Nelson, U.S. 1965. Transactions of that session also were Fish and Wildlife Service, Jamestown, North published. Dakota; Glen C. Sanderson, Illinois Natural The Wildlife Society is a national profes­ History Survey, Urbana; and Richard W. sional group dedicated to the sound manage­ Vaught, Missouri Department of Conserva­ ment of all wildlife. Society membership tion, Columbia. encompasses every conceivable specialty Special recognition is due the men who led regarding wildlife and the broad fields of the symposium sessions the day they were ecology and resource management. The held: Eugene F. Bossenmaier, Manitoba North Central Section is a regional group Wildlife Branch, Winnipeg; and Calvin J. within the national Society, drawing its Barstow, Tennessee Game and Fish Commis­ members from 11 states. sion, Nashville. The Canada goose was chosen as the sub­ ject of a symposium because of widespread While the editors of Canada Goose Man­ interest in the bird on the part of waterfowl agement have incorporated the constituent managers, hunters, resource administrators, symposium papers in their original form, and the wildlife-enjoying public. The geo­ they have attempted throughout to add sec­ graphic range of the species is nearly tions of insight, interpretation, and integra­ continent-wide, and the various subspecies tion that hopefully lend to the volume a have been the subjects of extended study by significant integrity. Included in these com­ a great many individuals and organizations. mentaries are remarks from the recorded This high level of concern pointed to a need floor discussions which followed the "live" for a forum where current information on presentation of each symposium paper. Canada geese from all parts of North The book has been published by Dembar America could be assembled. Education Research Services, Inc., as a con­ The symposium agenda was determined tribution to the resource management field, by a special program committee of the North without financial support other than that to Central Section. Time limitations put a one­ be engendered by sales. Royalties are as­ day ceiling on the symposium, so papers were signed to the North Central Section of The presented by invitation only. An effort was Wildlife Society.-JAMES B. HALE and made to find those people who could best ROBERT A. McCABE. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION 1 I An Inventory of Continental Populations, Problems, and Prospects ------------------- 5 1. The Atlantic Flyway --------------------------------------------------------- _ _ 9 2. The Mississippi Flyway -------------------------------------------------------_ _ 24 3. The Central Flyway ---------------------------------------------------------- _ _ 30 4. The Pacific Flyway ------------------------------------------------------------ 42 II Studies in Population Dynamics and Distribution -------------~---------------------- 51 5. At Mattamuskeet, North Carolina ---------------------------------------------- 52 6. At Rochester, Minnesota ___________________________________________________ _:____ 58 7. At Seney, Michigan ------------------------------------------------------------ 72 8. On Travel Lanes--------------------------------------------------------------- 86 9. On Breeding Grounds --------------------------------------------------------_ _ 92 III Current Issues in Canada Goose Management --------------------------------------- 103 10. Transplant Programs---------------------------------------------------------- 104 11. Farming ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 112 12. Season Limits ----------------------------------------------------------------- 116 13. Shell Limits ------------------------------------------------------------------- 122 14. Research Needs --------------------------------------------------------------- 140 IV A Case Study: The Mississippi Valley Population------------------------------------ 149 V Summary: Requirements and Opportunities for Managing Canada Geese _____________ 167 DISCUSSION --------------------------------------------------------------------- 175 APPENDIX ___________________________ ------------------------------___________ _ _ 181 1. Biographical Sketches of Contributors ------------------------------------------ 182 2. Consolidated Bibliography---------------------------------------------------- __ 184 3. Acknowledgements ---------------------------------------_____________ ______ _ _ 188 INDEX--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 190 ix THE CANADA, OR "COMMON," WILD GOOSE is seemingly a bird of striking contradictions. In his classic reference on North American birds, Bent calls the Canada "the most generally well known of any of our wild fowl," and he indeed may be. Yet probably only avian afficionados know there are per­ haps at least a dozen subspecies, or "races," of Canada geese, ranging in size from the 3-pound cackling Canada of the Pacific coast to the 18-pound giant Canada of the midwestern prairies. The same authority characterizes the Canada as being "more per­ sistently hunted, over a wider range of country and for a longer period, than any other American game bird." Yet today, in the face of a sharp de­ cline in overall waterfowl numbers and an increase in gunning pressure, the Canada goose is generally doing quite well, thank you, and is even present in greater numbers in some places than in pre-historic times, although there are exceptions to this general situation. As a matter of fact, strictly speaking the Canada goose is not what ornithologists call a true goose. That is, he does not belong to the genus Anser, as does the snow goose, for example. Technically the Canada goose is a brent, belonging to the genus Branta. But such distinctions concern few laymen. To the goose hunter a Canada goose is a goose, although he may go under many local nicknames like bustard, honker, oir a cravat, or wavy. For generations the Canada goose has been the epitome of wildness, evoking with his semi-annual migrations a sure evidence of far-away places with strange-sounding names, and representing with his aerial strength and grace and acumen a contempt for the accouterments of civ­ ilization. Yet one of the papers in this book will call the Canada "the most easily managed and the most manipulated species of wildlife on this continent." The traditional literature on the Canada goose, be it written by orni­ thologists or gunners, describes him as "so wary, so sagacious, so difficult to outwit." Yet as early as the 1920's one observer said that Canadas "are quick to lose their suspicions of man and his ways," and a more recent report indicates that some flocks actually develop a tradition of depend­ ency: "Fear of man is lost; wildness is forfeited." One paper in this book even calls the Canada plain "stupid" at times. One of the reasons the Canada goose appeals so strongly to people may well be the widely held understanding that geese mate for life. Yet adultery, divorce, and remarriage are not unknown among Canadas. As one observer has said, "We have seen some instances of mate-switching that would do Hollywood stars proud!" Redwood trees, dams, and other natural resource issues may strain relations among western states and with Washington, yet one of the pa­ pers in this book highlights the level of cooperation the Canada goose has been able to engender. The range of the Canada may still be said grossly to encompass the sweep of the continent "from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic coast," yet the evidence in this book strongly sug­ gests that great numbers of birds are increasingly wintering well north of their traditional grounds-to