On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 02:17:33PM +1000, Stephen Ambrose wrote:
> The articles that you cited say that there are an estimated 25,000 Canada
> Geese that migrate annually through the region and that there are between
> 20,000 and 25,000 resident Canada Geese. This equates to between 45-50
> thousand Canada Geese that could potentially use the air-space close to the
> airports. Therefore, culling would only reduce the total population by
> between 4.0-4.4%. I doubt that this would significantly lower the risk of
> bird strikes.
Culling/hunting can change local densities of birds - depending on
the species's demographics and the frequency and size of the cull.
I'd guess an annual cull of this size would depress resident Canada
Geese density in NYC, but I don't have any numbers so maybe I'm wrong.
We certainly have seen at larger scale, large alteration of Canada Geese
density from hunting.
Canada Goose population in the surrounding region is interesting in
terms of the potential for immediate immigration but its also misleading
in several ways. Geese further from flight paths create less collision
risk, they also lie across legisative boundaries and in areas where other
control methods may be more appropriate, e.g. extending hunting season.
Incidently a 4% reduction in US bird strikes would be worth about A$30
million per annum.
Andrew
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