Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Ebbinge B.S. (1991) The impact of hunting on mortality-rates and spatial-distribution of geese wintering in the western palearctic. ARDEA 79 (2): 197-209
An analysis of changes in hunting regulations and changes in size and productivity over the last 25 years of three arctic-breeding goose populations that winter in western Europe, strongly suggests that the recent increase in number is primarily due to decreased mortality rates as a result of reduced shooting. Two of these populations, the Russian breeding Barnacle Geese, Branta leucopsis and the Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Branta b. bernicla, are almost fully protected nowadays, but were hunted earlier. The third population, that of the European White-fronted Goose, Anser albifrons albifrons, breeding in northern Russia, can still be hunted over nearly its entire range, but restrictive measures have been imposed on shooting since 1970. All three populations have increased considerably in numbers, but not synchronously. Particularly the latter two populations showed a change in growth rate, immediately after important restrictions on shooting came into effect. Also spatial distribution of geese is strongly influenced by shooting. Possibly due to the huge proportion of birds hit but not killed by lead pellets, geese learn to avoid heavily hunted areas and concentrate on better protected sites.


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