Human Disturbances to Waterfowl
Annotated Bibliography
When feeding or loafing geese were frightened suddenly, entire flocks of snow geese (Chen caerulescens) took off in near unison without normal preflight coordination of families. If flocks were large, birds rose in a confused, clamoring mass and social groups frequently were broken in the disorder. Flocks frightened by the same disturbance mixed together as snow geese circled about before landing again. Disturbances that caused flocks to flush occurred more frequently in Northern States than on the Gulf Coast. Major factors causing disturbances were eagles and aircraft flying overhead, and human activity nearby. Although northern observations were from protected areas, gunfire on refuge boundaries sometimes frightened snow geese inside the refuge while some geese that flew outside the refuge to feed came under heavy fire causing flocks to separate and scatter. Hunting was closed during most of the southern observation period. Disturbances at Squaw Creek in spring were intermediate between fall and winter rates (1.9/hr) and did not differ from either (P > 0.10).
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