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Skagit Valley / Wrangel Island Snow Goose
Contact: Evenson, Joe

Availability: Restricted
The data are withheld from general circulation and disclosure but access may be obtained on a case-by-case basis through negotiation

Description
The Northern Puget Sound (NPS) wintering population of lesser snow geese occurs in the Skagit and Fraser Deltas along the western border between the United States and Canada. This population of snow geese have traditionally used very discrete estuary and agricultural habitats associated with Skagit and Port Susan Bays. The objectives of this project are to examine the current relationship of the NPS population to other Pacific flyway use areas. This will include documentation of migration routes, phenology, staging areas, and stopover locations throughout the flyway. The transmitters are programed to transmit for three years. more

The breeding grounds of this population are on Wrangel Island, Russia. Because Wrangel Island snow geese represent the last major snow goose population breeding in Asia, and the primary Russian goose population that winters in North America, it is a high priority for the Pacific Flyway and the subject of long standing international cooperative management and conservation. Data collected since the early 1970s on Wrangel Island indicates that the population has grown in abundance, become younger, and changed its behavior relative to traditional habitat and resources. These population changes have become more apparent since the early 1990s and appear to be in response to warmer spring conditions, earlier snowmelt, and changes in the predator community on Wrangel Island. Some of these changes are also evident in the NPS wintering population where the total overwintering population size has increased. Particular questions that we hope to answer include: - When do geese depart and return to NPS during spring and fall migration? - Where are important flyway use areas during migration? - When and how long do geese use areas along migration routes? - Document inter and/or intra-year interchange among NPS and other wintering areas. - Do some geese that use NPS move to other locations within the flyway during the same winter or among different years? - If NPS geese are moving to other locations, what is the timing of emigration and potential return to NPS?

Scope
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal

Contributors
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), moredata creator

Related datasets
Published in:
OBIS-SEAMAP: Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations, more

URL

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Metadatarecord created: 2013-06-26
Information last updated: 2014-06-18
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy