Abstract
Field choice was recorded during counts of geese in South-west Scania, South Sweden in autumn (October and November) and in winter (January), 1977/1978–2011/2012. Sugar beet spill was the most important field type in autumn and during the last ten years also in winter. Bean Geese Anser fabalis used this food source when the study started while Canada Geese Branta canadensis, Greylag Geese Anser anser, White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons and Barnacle Geese Branta leucopsis followed during the years 1987–2001. Potatoes were mainly used when fields with sugar beet spill were unavailable. Cereal stubbles were mainly used in autumn and to a quite low extent. Winter cereals were heavily used by most species in both autumn and winter during the first 15 years but less so thereafter. Grasslands were mainly used in winter, to a large extent by White-fronted Geese and to a quite high extent by Bean Geese and Barnacle Geese. The total use of oilseed rape was low, mainly by Canada Geese that utilised fields with no-till when the ground was snow-covered.
Highlights
During recent decades most goose populations in Sweden and other countries in North-west Europe have increased very markedly (Fox et al 2010, Nilsson 2013 and references therein)
When autumn counts started about 40% of the Bean Geese were found on harvested sugar beet fields with autumn-sown cereals as the second
When Owen (1980) published his review the geese had already changed their feeding habits and field choice appreciably and the different species were to a large extent found on agricultural land with different types of crops used for feeding
Summary
During recent decades most goose populations in Sweden and other countries in North-west Europe have increased very markedly (Fox et al 2010, Nilsson 2013 and references therein). Problems with Egyptian Geese Alopochen aegypticus are mentioned in a text written already 3 000 years ago (Houlihan 1986) It was during the agricultural revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries that the geese turned to farmland in increasing numbers, as vegetation more nutritious than wild grasses was developed and grown intensively. In north-central Spain, the villages employed boys, so called ganseros, to keep the geese from the autumn-sown crops (Madoz 1849) Several studies, both in Sweden and abroad, have tried to prove and quantify crop damage caused by geese, often with inconclusive results (Jönsson 1982, Owen 1990). To ascertain which measure to adopt data about the field choice of the geese are needed
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