Abstracts

Presented by Ben Luukkonen - Email: bzluukko@iastate.edu

Temperate-breeding Canada goose (Branta Canadensis maxima) populations have increased to historic levels, providing social, ecological, and economic value. However, human-goose conflict including reduced water quality, damaged landscape aesthetics, crop depredation, and safety concerns related to aircraft strikes are costs associated with Canada geese. The adaptability of geese to urban areas creates novel problems that traditional wildlife management actions may not fully address. Our goal was to compare survival and band recovery rate estimates for Canada geese in urban and rural areas of Iowa to assess potential differences in population trends and efficacy of hunting to manage goose populations in urban areas. We hypothesized survival would be greater and recovery rates lower for geese banded in urban areas compared to rural areas. We analyzed capture histories of 69,316 geese banded in Iowa between 1999 and 2017 using Burnhams joint live-dead recovery model in Program MARK with package RMark. This allowed us to use data from live recaptures (n=7,471) of Canada geese in addition to banding and dead recovery (n=25,207) data. We examined age (juvenile, sub-adult, or adult), year, time, banding site (urban or rural), harvest regulation index, and winter severity index. The top-ranked model held 78% of the model weight and indicated age and winter severity were influential on survival and recovery rates, while the second-ranked model held 21% of the model weight and indicated survival and recovery rates were a function of age, winter severity index, and banding site. Survival estimates indicated urban-banded juveniles may have lower survival and urban-banded sub-adults may have higher survival compared to juveniles and sub-adults banded in rural areas. Urban goose populations likely have different vital rates than rural populations, potentially warranting different management strategies to achieve population goals.