Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

636.0. "Eastern shore goose populations" by CROW::STORM () Thu Apr 12 1990 12:11

    I was catching up on some reading last night and ran into an
    article on goose "shortstopping" that I thought some of you
    would be interested in.  It's from the Feb 90 issue of American
    Hunter.
    
    With the decline in the Maryland goose population the popular
    explaination has been that the geese where stopping short in
    their migration by the addition of refuges, etc north of
    Maryland.  Apparently the goose population was great in North
    Carolina before the population rose in Maryland and everyone
    assumed that same goose population just stopped short in their
    annual migration to N.C.
    
    They've done a study in Maryland that discounts the shortstopping
    theory.  Apparently 90% of the Maryland-banded geese returned
    to the same area.  This seems to indicate that this goose population
    is separate from others in the east that are on the upswing.
    
    The theory they proposed was that a goose population continues to
    grow until hunting pressure picks up.  Eventually, the hunting
    pressure increases past the break even point and the goose 
    population begins a decline.
    
    That seems to make a lot of sense.  The part that really suprised me
    was that it stated they need a 76% survival rate from spring through
    winter to have a constant population.  That seems incredibly high
    for a bird that lays multiple eggs.  Between 1967-74 the Maryland
    goose survival rate was 82%.  In 1986 it was 63%.
    
    Mark,
    

    
    Mark,
    
    Does the 82% mean 8 of 10 eggs go on to become adults or 2 of 10 birds
    are killed by hunters and natural, un-natural deaths.
    
    Rick
    

    That was what I was wondering as well.  It makes more sense to me if
    that is the percentage that survives hunting season (and still high at
    that).  The article said survived "from spring through winter", which
    would imply that percentage of eggs became adults that survived through
    hunting season.
    
    Mark,