Market Hunting - See text

Midcontinent Light Geese Example Includes Greater and Lesser Snow Geese (blue and white color phases) and Ross geese

Greater and Lesser Snow geese on Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways Use Hudson’s Bay as breeding ground and stopover areas (“Midcontinental light geese”)

Reduced Hunter Harvest Climate shift on BG Result: 1965 present: Greater Snow 30,000 600,000 Lesser Snow 1 3 million Ross 30,000 400,000 Population sizes from 1968-1993 Why the Increase? Agriculture Sanctuaries Reduced Hunter Harvest Climate shift on BG Result: Higher adult survival/condition Higher repro

Goose “grubbing” for rhizomes & tubers results in major shifts in vegetation

Hudson Bay Study Site 1984 Is it really geese? 1997

Is it really geese? – The exclosure experiment At Hudson Bay 35% of habitat destroyed, 30 % damaged, 35% overgrazed

Recall the ways hunting can be used to alter outcome: Season Method of Take Bag Limit # of Hunters Which animals

Management Response Conservation Order Light Goose Hunts ordered by USFWS Extend Hunting Season into Spring Methods Electronic calls No limit on number shells shotgun contains Bag limit No daily bag limit imposed, set by states

USFWS Final Environmental Impact Statement: Light Goose Management June 2007 The management goal for light geese in the mid-continent region is to reduce the population by 50% from the level observed in the late 1990s. The management goal for greater snow geese is to reduce the population to 500,000 birds.

Lethal Trapping - More controversial than hunting See Table 10-3 for pro-con views Leghold trap Snare

1994 AZ Ban on trapping on federal/state lands Effect on harvest – lab exercise Current Regulations: 1) Only on private lands or special designations 2) License, written exam, course required 3) All traps labeled, padded jaws, offset 4) Checked daily, kill target or release non-target 5) Written annual report to AZGFD Exemptions: Livestock losses Federal, state, county, local health departments Rodent control

Examples of use of trapping: Mesocarnivores on refuges/breeding grounds Garretson and Rohwer 2001. JWM 65:398-405. 41km2 sites, ½ trapped other not trapped Trappers paid $18,000 for 5 mos 2404 coons, skunks and foxes Response: Doubled duck nesting success 23% vs 43% and return rate (so what was management goal in this case?) Recommendations: 1) Treat large areas, with high repro potential 2) May not be necessary where coyotes prey on coons, skunks and foxes 3) Need public acceptance – rural area so acceptance was… high or low?

2) Introduced Exotic Species Nutria (Coypu) Native of South America 5-8 young/litter 2-3 litters per year Introduced for fur in 1930’s

Intro in La in 1930 – 20 million by 1950 1970 – 10,000 trappers in La 1998 - 1,700

Convert marsh to open water Cost: millions of $ Effects: Destroy levees Consume crops Convert marsh to open water Cost: millions of $ Chesapeake Bay of Maryland CONTROL Options???

Lethal Trapping – worked in Great Britain where coypu eradicated Alternatives to lethal trapping? 1) Live trapping and removal Cost Remove to where? 2) Contraception Availability 3) Poison Non-target effects Reduced suffering? Limiting access Reintroduce predators Feasibility Acceptance

Arizona’s Coypu?