Survival rates and harvest patterns of Ohio‐Banded Canada geese

Abstract

Growth of temperate breeding Canada goose (Branta canadensis maxima) populations remains a challenge for agencies that seek to balance social acceptance with demand for hunting opportunity from constituents. Harvest regulation is the principle means by which federal and state agencies attempt to keep populations in balance with their environment. Band recovery data and aerial surveys are used to monitor populations and evaluate population control efforts. Greater than 140,000 temperate‐breeding Canada geese were banded in Ohio, USA, from 1990 to 2015. We used Brownie dead‐recovery models to estimate survival rates as a function of time, age, urban–rural status, winter weather severity, and hunting regulations. We derived annual direct‐recovery rates by age and urban–rural cohorts. We mapped all recoveries of Ohio‐banded geese to investigate changes in harvest distribution over time. The highest‐ranked model that explained survival of Ohio‐banded geese had urban–rural status, age, and winter weather severity effects. Survival rates were lower during severe winters for adult rural geese, adult urban geese, and hatch‐year urban geese; however, hatch‐year rural geese had greater survival rates during severe winters. Direct recovery rates of all geese remained stable over the duration of the study (1990–2015), and there was a shift eastward in distribution of band recoveries over time. Survival rates of Ohio‐banded Canada geese appear to be largely unaffected by annual harvest regulations. Furthermore, long‐term moderation of winter weather in Ohio could result in increased adult goose survival, requiring additional management actions to temper population growth. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

Canada Goose Survival and Recovery Rates in Urban and Rural Areas of Iowa, USA

“…To reduce the number of possible candidate models and because we expected survival and dead recovery rates to be affected similarly by the factors in our analysis, we kept the same structure for the survival and dead recovery parameters in each model. We reduced the candidate model set to 16 models after preliminary analyses revealed models with time interaction effects were strongly favored over all other models (Shirkey et al 2018). This prevented us from examining models with other time‐dependent variables of interest (White and Burnham 1999) and resulted in issues with ranking models using Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC; Burnham and Anderson 2002) because the time variable explained most of the variation in the data.…”

“…We adapted methods described by Shirkey et al (2018) to create annual harvest regulation and winter severity indices during 1999–2019. We calculated the harvest regulation index as the annual sum of the number of days in a goose hunting season multiplied by the daily bag limit of the season; thus, larger values indicated more liberal goose hunting regulations that year.…”

“…Hunting is also a primary cause of Canada goose mortality (Trost and Malecki 1985), but Canada geese that use urban areas may be less susceptible to harvest by hunters because of ordinances restricting hunting or firearm‐discharge within municipalities or other challenges associated with hunting in or near city limits. Researchers examining survival and recovery rates of Canada geese banded in urban and rural areas have reported mixed results based on geographic location, cohort, or specific cities within the same geographic region (Heller 2010, Beston et al 2014, Dorak et al 2017, Shirkey et al 2018, Ladin et al 2020). Furthermore, survival and harvest of Canada geese is likely influenced by winter weather (Conover et al 2015, Shirkey et al 2018).…”

“…Researchers examining survival and recovery rates of Canada geese banded in urban and rural areas have reported mixed results based on geographic location, cohort, or specific cities within the same geographic region (Heller 2010, Beston et al 2014, Dorak et al 2017, Shirkey et al 2018, Ladin et al 2020). Furthermore, survival and harvest of Canada geese is likely influenced by winter weather (Conover et al 2015, Shirkey et al 2018). Information regarding factors affecting survival and harvest of Canada geese in urban areas is important when considering management options.…”

Survival, Harvest, and Lincoln Estimates of Wood Ducks Banded in Ohio

“…Daily bag limit and season length were time-dependent covariates with bag limit changing only once (2008) and season lengths changing three times: in 1994, 1995, and 1997 (Table 2). Because daily bag limit and season length were both time dependent, we could not include them with a fully time-varying model, so we did not include time as a covariate when estimating survival parameters (White and Burnham 1999;Heller 2010;Shirkey et. al.…”