CANADA GOOSE MANAGEMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY

Leafloor, James; Abraham, Kenneth; Caswell, Dale; Gamble, Kenneth; Helm, Robert; Humberg, Dale; Lawrence, Jeffery; Luukkonen, David; Pritchert, Ronald; Warr, Edward; Zenner, Guy

Canada goose (Branta canadensis) populations and associated management programs in the Mississippi Flyway (MF) have undergone tremendous changes in the past 50 years. Early management efforts were focused on 3 populations of interior Canada geese (B. c. interior) at a few geographically restricted refuges where large numbers of geese congregated in fall and winter. Annual harvests of Canada geese in the U.S. portion of the Flyway averaged about 145,000 birds in the 1960s, but peaked at almost 900,000 birds in 2000. Canadian harvests increased about 30%, while hunter numbers declined by 60% from 1975 to 2002. In 1969, the first mid-December goose survey indicated about 600,000 Canada geese in the Flyway; giant Canada geese (B. c. maxima) comprised less than 10% of the population, and small Canada geese (B. c. hutchinsii) from the Tall Grass Prairie Population (TGPP) were even more scarce. In 2002, Flyway-wide surveys suggested a pre-nesting population of about 2.4 million Canada geese, about half of which were giant Canada geese (the Mississippi Flyway Giant Population, or MFGP). While numbers of Canada geese have increased in the south, the proportion of migrant B. c. interior wintering in southern portions of the Flyway has declined. Increasing overlap between wintering interior and giant Canada goose populations led to a change in management focus in the late 1980s. Since then, most population monitoring efforts have occurred on the breeding grounds, where populations are most discrete geographically. Giant Canada geese now comprise the bulk of the harvest in many states, and recent harvest management strategies are aimed at further increasing harvest of giants while controlling harvest of subarctic- and arctic-nesting populations.