Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Geese are extremely shy and wary when molting and respond noise of helicopters many kilometers away. A significant interspecific difference exists in both the distance of reaction and in the intensity of response. In certain situations the pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) react to helicopters 20 km away, in general swimming out on open water at 10 km distance, and clumping in panic when the helicopter is 4 km away. Barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) are less shy and react only moderately to helicopters even 1-2 km away; generally they do not react to helicopters at 4 km distance. Walking past a lake with molting geese often causes them to be driven off, (especially the pink-footed geese). When they are forced to cross the tundra there is a risk of predation by the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus). If the lake is connected with a river or a coast, geese may return later in the molting period, but remote lakes will not be recolonized. Twice just prior to moult we drove geese off a lake, and they only returned to one of the lakes later during moult.