Evaluation of resident Canada goose movements to reduce the risk of goose‐aircraft collisions at suburban airports

Abstract

Resident (non‐migratory) Canada goose (Branta canadensis) populations in suburban environments pose risks to human health and safety. Specifically, the relatively large size and gregarious behavior of geese combined with an overlap in aircraft flight space pose substantial risk of property damage and human fatalities from goose‐aircraft collisions. We estimated home range and core use areas of resident Canada geese and evaluated goose movements to better define the risk of goose‐aircraft collisions around Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. We placed satellite transmitters on 16 of 763 neck‐ and leg‐banded geese to identify and track individuals over an 18‐month study period. The frequency of satellite‐tagged goose movements peaked daily within the first 2 hours after sunrise (28.1%) and again near sunset (27.2%). All in‐flight goose movements occurred ≤64 m above ground level. Geese flying at these altitudes posed a risk to aircraft in the take‐off and landing phases of flight. For all in‐flight movements, the number of movements per day was 0.13 during the molt (1 Jun–15 Jul), 0.42 during early post‐molt 2008 (16 Jul–31 Oct), 0.36 during late post‐molt (1 Nov–31 Jan), 0.58 during breeding/nesting (1 Feb–31 May), and 0.58 during the early post‐molt 2009. Satellite‐tagged geese traveled a mean distance ranging from 2.0 km (SE = 0.3) to 4.9 km (SE = 0.4) per day, depending on sex and season, which supports the need for intensive goose management within a minimum distance of 8 km from airports. Mean fixed 95% kernel home range and 50% core use area were 991.8 ha (SE = 241.1) and 120.4 ha (SE = 24.6), respectively. Additionally, we monitored site recolonization of nuisance geese after the controlled removal of 60 resident geese from 1 site, which eliminated 24.2% of those initially banded at the site in 2008, but other geese began to recolonize the site within 27 days. Rapid recolonization of the removal site suggests that lethal removal should be conducted at all molt locations within a minimum distance of 8 km of suburban airports and any additional removal or management resources should be applied to greater distances to prevent recolonization of these sites by geese in close proximity to the removal site. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Movement and survival of Canada geese in Iowa

“…Our home range area estimates during winter and late winter are similar to those reported for Canada geese marked during winter in the greater Chicago metropolitan area ). However, our estimates of median home range were larger than mean home range estimates reported for Canada geese in suburban areas of North Carolina, although time periods during which home ranges were calculated differed (Rutledge et al 2015). During hunting seasons and excluding migratory movement, Canada geese are likely most mobile during autumn (September and October).…”

“…During hunting seasons and excluding migratory movement, Canada geese are likely most mobile during autumn (September and October). Decrease in home range areas from autumn to winter periods were also observed in Canada geese in suburban North Carolina (Rutledge et al 2015). While urban geese used smaller areas and were less likely to leave city limits during hunting seasons, individuals did leave city limits to forage in agricultural fields, while no individuals were observed doing so during winter in Chicago .…”

“…Adult females and their mates nesting in urban areas likely contribute most to human-goose conflict by continually returning to and producing young at these locations. Additionally, we expected movements of adult females to be similar to males because of long-term, year round pair bonding (Rutledge et al 2015); movements of juveniles were expected to be similar given the tendency of young geese to remain in family units for most of the first year of life, especially in their first autumn. Therefore, we chose to mark only adult females with GPS-GSM transmitters.…”

An evaluation of translocation as a tool to reduce burrowing owl collisions at airports

“…Reducing the number of aircraft collisions with animals is one of the main goals of airport wildlife management actions. In many studies, the number of collisions is used as a proxy for risk evaluation at airports (Krupka 2000, Zakrajsek and Bissonette 2005, Allan 2006, Rutledge et al 2015, Allan et al 2016). Due to its large size, weight, and abundance, current Brazilian laws classify burrowing owls as posing a relevant risk to aircraft (BRASIL 2015).…”

Crowded skies: Conflicts between expanding goose populations and aviation safety

“…If lethal control is considered an option, the roundup of individuals must be extensive enough to impact the population in the vicinity of the airport. A study of neck-tagged Canada geese at Greensboro, North Carolina revealed that removing geese from a single site resulted in re-colonisation within only 27 days, underscoring the necessity of repeated removal of geese within an 8-km radius around an airport (Rutledge et al 2015 ). The use of hunting to disturb geese and potentially regulate the population can offer a form of cost-neutral management option.…”