UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Most people think Pennsylvania's resident Canada geese are like obnoxious relatives who visit and wear out their welcome. They believe migrating birds just stopped here and decided to stay year-round.

But according to a Penn State bird expert, that's not the reason for large flocks of the big, noisy, black-and-white waterfowl crowding golf courses, prowling campuses and fouling beaches around the Keystone State.

It's a widely misunderstood phenomenon, explains Margaret Brittingham, associate professor of wildlife resources in the College of Agricultural Sciences. The resident geese problem, she points out, was actually an unexpected result of intentional attempts to help geese when populations were low.

"First of all, you have to understand that there are a number of different races of Canada geese," she says. "They are similar to subspecies, but not as distinct. However, there are slight differences in their behavior."

By the early 1900s, migratory Canada geese populations that breed in the Hudson Bay region of Canada and winter in the Chesapeake Bay area were in sharp decline due to over-hunting. Those birds flew over Pennsylvania, providing biannual enjoyment for birdwatchers and hunters. Beginning in the 1930s, according to Brittingham, state and federal wildlife agencies throughout the Northern Flyway stocked geese captured in other places to establish breeding populations and restore recreational opportunities.

In Pennsylvania, a race called giant Canadas were released. Those birds came from Minnesota and Wisconsin. The giant Canadas are bigger than the Atlantic migrant geese (average 12 pounds compared to 8.8 pounds for migrants) and never migrated much from their homes in the Midwest.

"So of course they never migrated in Pennsylvania either," says Brittingham. "At the time they were released here, the giant Canadas were rather rare, but they aren't now."

During the same period, according to John Dunn, wildlife biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service adopted a regulation that outlawed the use of live decoys for goose hunting. In response, a number of sportsmen's clubs liberated large flocks of geese. These birds, probably migratory geese and their offspring trapped locally years before, had lost their instinct to migrate. They had adapted to living year around in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Dunn notes.

"Even the game commission established a flock of resident Canada geese at Pymatuning Lake in 1935," he says. "By the 1970s, the Game Commission realized it had a problem with resident geese."

For a few years the birds were trapped and transferred from problem areas to other counties in Pennsylvania and to other states.

"But now the other states no longer want them," says Dunn. "And we just spread the problem around the state. Prior to 1930 we had no Canada geese nesting in Pennsylvania. Now we have them nesting in every county in the state."

The management of resident geese is extremely complicated, Brittingham points out. Populations of migrating Canada geese are decreasing because of poor reproduction on their arctic breeding grounds and competition there from vast numbers of snow geese. Hunting of migratory Canada geese is being curtailed.

"It's a dilemma for managers," she says. "They must decrease the hunting pressure on migratory geese and increase it on resident geese. But that can be a problem in urban areas because it upsets the animal-rights folks and the people who like to feed the birds. Managers must time hunting seasons so that migrating birds have headed south and only resident birds are available."

Resident geese have become a major hunting resource, notes Dunn. He says 60,000 to 70,000 nonmigrating birds are taken by hunters annually in Pennsylvania.

Surprisingly, according to Brittingham, it appears that there has been little interbreeding between resident geese and migrating geese.

"Young geese migrate back north and pairs don't split up until they are on the breeding grounds," she says, "so there is little chance for resident geese to pair up with migrants."

Dunn estimates that there are 250,000 resident geese in Pennsylvania. They have become a major nuisance, causing pollution on state park beaches and significant amounts of crop damage. Brittingham questions whether hunting can really control their numbers. Other population-control measures are being considered.

"Managers are looking at euthanizing birds, destroying nests and eggs," she says. "It's getting to the point they have to do something."

Dunn agrees. He expects the federal government will probably become much more liberal granting permits to deal with nuisance resident geese. Even though the resident geese don't migrate, they are protected by the same laws that strictly limit the killing of migratory waterfowl.

"The game commission is trying to manage resident Canada geese with hunting," he says. "That has worked in the rural areas, but it has not worked in suburban areas."

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EDITORS: Margaret Brittingham can be reached at 814-863-8442.

To download high-resolution image, go to http://aginfo.psu.edu/News/september01/geese.tif

Contact:

Jeff Mulhollem jjm29@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax