Human Disturbances to Waterfowl
Annotated Bibliography
It was evident by 1967 that widespread searching during the laying period was disturbing the Canada geese (Branta canadensis) and leading to increased predation (MacInnes and Misra 1972), so from 1968 onwards searches were made less frequently early in the season, and on less than a third of the study area. Nests were observed until the first young hatched, and broods were enumerated once families reached the feeding area. In the intervening period many goslings were lost, but we made no attempts to find broods at this time because we had learned that our disturbance caused heavy predation by herring gulls (Larus argentatus). In the abstract, the authors stated that about half the predation was due to human disturbance, resulting in the loss of 13-31% of eggs.
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