Description

We studied the western Canada goose B. c. moffitti population at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in western Utah from March to July in 1996 and 1997 to determine the causes of low gosling production. Our initial interest was in whether water salinity was involved. We researched the effects of saline drinking water by conducting an experiment on captive wildstrain goslings that were collected as eggs from Cutler marsh in Cache County, Utah and by observing freeranging broods in the broodrearing impoundments. Mortality occurred in captive goslings at 18 uScm; effects on growth were evident at 12 uScm. We identified 12 hydrologically distinct areas within the 9 impoundments at the refuge. From 15 April to 15 July, conductivity measurements ranged from 3.1 to 25.4,uScm within these areas. Our results suggest that at the levels that goslings experienced during the critical hatchling period during 1996 1997, salinity was not a serious problem. During exceptionally dry years, if salinity levels rise during early spring, then its effects might be more directly related to gosling mortality. At the levels we measured during this study, mortality in freeranging goslings was independent of specific conductivity. Rather, annual goose production appeared to be limited by predation and human disturbance. This conclusion is supported by 2 lines of evidence: a low groundnest success, and b low gosling survival. Ground nests had lower nest success 569 of 16 nests in both years than artificial nesting platforms 909 of 10 nests. Gosling survival to fledging was 25 and 52 in 1996 and 1997, respectively, well below survivorships levels reported in the literature. Our observations suggest that coyotes are abundant on the refuge and we observed them hunting for geese. Human disturbance appears to predispose goslings to mortality because goslings often became separated from their parents after disturbance. Low productivity also is related to the low number of breeding pairs on the refuge. During the summers 1996 and 1997, number of nesting pairs of geese averaged 26 and 39, respectively.

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