Space and Habitat Use by Greater Snow Goose Broods on Bylot Island, Northwest Territories

Abstract

The brood-rearing season is a critical time for arctic-breeding geese because plant production is low and the growing season short. Thus, parental geese must efficiently exploit resources if young are to acquire adequate size and condition in preparation for fall migration. Current knowledge of habitat and space use by arctic-breeding geese is limited to some observations of unmarked birds. Thus, we studied habitat and space use of individual radio-marked greater snow geese (Chen caerulescens atlantica) in a high arctic environment. We radiotracked 20 goose families throughout the brood-rearing period in july and August 1989 and 1990, in a 70-km 2 area of wet tundra and upland habitats on Bylot Island, Northwest Territories