Over Abundant Snow Goose Populations

Photo: G.W. Beyersbergen; Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service

The lesser snow goose population has tripled over the past 20 years and continues to grow at a rate of five percent a year. It now stands at over 4.5 million breeding birds. The fragile sub-Arctic and Arctic coastal marsh ecosystem where they nest in the summer cannot sustain this many geese.

• Feature Article: Arctic Habitat Threatened by Snow Geese
• Characteristics of Snow Geese Versus Ross' Geese
• White Goose Collar Observation Project
  

Links

Green Lane

• Greater Snow Goose page (Quebec Region)

External

• Arctic Ecosystem in Peril: Report of the Arctic Goose Habitat Working Group (United States Fish and Wildlife Service)
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Snow Goose Home Page
• Snow Goose Population Problem - Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Centre, US Geological Survey
• Hudson Bay Project - Ecosystem Studies and Conservation of Coastal Arctic Tundra

Other References (Suggested Readings)

• Kerbes et al. 1990. Destruction of wetland habitats by lesser snow geese: a keystone species on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Journal of Applied Ecology 27:242-258.
• Iacobelli and Jefferies. 1991. Inverse salinity gradients in coastal marshes and death of stands of willows: the effects of grubbing by geese. Journal of Ecology 79:61-73.
• Ganter et al. 1996. Long-term vegetation changes in a snow goose nesting habitat. Canadian Journal of Zoology 74:965-969.
• Jano et al. 1998. The detection of vegetation change by multitemporal analysis of LANDSAT data: the effects of goose foraging. Journal of Ecology 86:93-99.
• Kotanen and Jefferies. 1997. Long-term destruction of sub-arctic wetland vegetation by lesser snow geese. Ecoscience 4:179-1.