Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Predation losses from nests of small Canada geese (Branta canadensis) were observed from 1965 to 1969 on a 62-km² study area at the mouth of the McConnell River, Northwest Territories. The lack of significant regression of logarithm of clutch size at first observation on date caused the author to believe that partial loss of a clutch did not occur in the absence of disturbance by humans. Partial clutch losses comprised 55% of all eggs observed lost after repeated visits to individual nests. The proportion of nests completely destroyed did not vary among years, but the proportion losing some eggs did change significantly. The latter difference was due to changes in predator activity, or of their interaction with humans, and not due simply to changes in human activity. Number of eggs lost per visit was the same (0.65 egg per visit) for all clutch sizes except six, which lost 0.26 egg per visit. Greater total destruction of small clutches resulted, because the eggs lost represented a higher proportion of the initial clutch. In the absence of human disturbance, predation losses of eggs would have been approximately 10% and varied little from year to year despite demonstrated changes in predator activity. A major exception to this might occur because of a high arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) population, which did not occur during this study.