Snow Goose Overpopulation Essay - 1882 Words

The Overpopulation of the Snow Goose in North America Abstract nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The purpose of this paper is to explore available research on the overpopulation of the Snow Goose on the North American continent. The snow goose has been rising in population since the middle of the century and has been escalating so much it is destroying their natural habitat. Wildlife managers have just recently begun to implement strategies to combat this problem. Mainly through the use of hunters the managers are trying to curb the population growth. Introduction nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;There are three main species of Snow Goose of primary concern. The Lesser Snow Goose (LSGO) is the must abundant and at the same time most troublesome.†¦show more content†¦The population of Greater Snow Goose has reached 612,000 from around 50,000 in the mid 1960’s. Ross’ Goose has increased from 8,000 in 1957 to nearly 500,000 in 1995 (Abraham and Jeffries). The Texas Department of Fish and Wildlife states that the population of wintering snow geese has remained constant. They imply this is due to the fact that the geese have spread their winter range into other states (TWDS 1999). As indicated earlier it is very hard to count wintering birds because such a large number of wintering areas. Below are a few graphs of these population trends (CWS 1999) (Ingstrup 98) (Ingstrup 1998) Factors contributing to High Population nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The snow goose problem is a wildlife managers nightmare. Through prudent restrictions on birds taken as game, and the increase in refuges coupled with excellent habitat in the birds entire range. It is estimated that there is nearly 900,000 ha of rice fields over the snow goose’s winter range (Abraham and Jeffries 1998). This is in addition to the typical salt marsh wintering ground. Abraham and Jeffries suggest that farther to the North in states like Nebraska and North Dakota the conversion of grassland prairie into cereal grains has provided a tremendous amount of food for the geese. In addition it has also blurred the area typically considered the wintering range. It may alsoShow MoreRelatedSnow Goose Overpopulation1901 Words   |  8 PagesThe Overpopulation of the Snow Goose in North America Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore available research on the overpopulation of the Snow Goose on the North American continent. The snow goose has been rising in population since the middle of the century and has been escalating so much it is destroying their natural habitat. Wildlife managers have just recently begun to implement strategies to combat this problem. Mainly through the use of hunters the managers are trying to