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Abstract
Human-wildlife conflicts are generally tackled using single-species studies and ensuing management solutions, ignoring species interactions that may moderate or augment these issues. We investigate the effects of interactions between four goose species foraging in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands, on species distributions, energetics, and consequent economic costs of agricultural damages and management, using an individual-based model. In Friesland, geese are allowed to graze on (semi-)natural grasslands and selected agricultural grasslands (accommodation areas), while they are scared off other agricultural grasslands (scaring areas). We show that interspecific competition and facilitation drive spatial redistribution of goose species. With increasing population sizes, most species are forced to increase foraging in the scaring areas, leading to more scaring events and more additional foraging to compensate for energy spent on fleeing behaviour. Our modelling results underline that careful consideration should be given to how management may affect the spatial distribution of foraging geese.
Highlights
The model is based on an existing single-species individual-based model, which simulates the spatial distribution of flocks of barnacle geese during winter foraging in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands
Adding grass height dependent grass growth (GHDGG) to the model instead of using the simpler grass growth calculations based solely on temperature and solar radiation had little to no effect on the qualitative outcomes of our study
The fraction of geese on agricultural grasslands, the fraction of geese foraging in scaring areas, average goose pressure per goose, and total goose pressure per goose were comparable with those of the simpler model for all four species (Fig. S8)
Summary
Due to anthropogenic changes, such as changes in land use or species management, some species have become vulnerable to extinction, while others have become highly abundant (Batt 1997; Jefferies et al 2004; Allombert et al 2005; Castro et al 2005; Rotem et al 2011; Oro et al 2013) Such highly abundant species may come into conflict with humans when more intensely interfering with human interests (Marzano et al 2013; Stroud et al 2017) and may have a large impact on other species (Jefferies et al 2006; Latham et al 2011), either negatively, through for instance resource competition, or positively through facilitation (van der Wal et al 2000; Arsenault and OwenSmith 2002; Stahl et al 2006). One of these approaches aims to influence the distribution of geese across the landscape, by scaring them away from some agricultural fields while providing safe refuge on others (accommodation areas) and in natural areas, combined with compensation payments to farmers (Kwak et al 2008; Eythorsson et al 2017)
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