Spring-Staging Ecology of Midcontinent Greater White-Fronted Geese

A major part of the midcontinent greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) population stages for several weeks in spring in the Rainwater Basin Area (RBA) of south-central Nebraska where substantial mortality from disease occurs periodically. Effective management of this population requires better data on use of habitat, vulnerability to disease, and the role of staging areas in migration and reproduction. We studied use of habitat, foods, nutrient dynamics, and effect of changes in agriculture on food availability and habitat needs in spring 1979-80. During daylight, geese were observed primarily in harvested cornfields (76%) and growing winter wheat (23%). Corn grain and winter wheat shoots composed 90 and 9%, respectively, of foods consumed by collected geese (n = 42). Feeding activity did not vary among post-harvest cornfield treatments except that little feeding occurred (P < 0.05) in moldboard-plowed fields ( 0.05) of temporal variation in calcium content. Adult geese storing 14.2 g of fat per day deposited approximately 582 g of fat between 22 February and 3 April. Energy requirements for thermal regulation were small compared with requirements for fat synthesis and probably had little effect on nutrient deposition. The 34,000 white-fronted geese present on the Harvard Marsh and Prairie Dog Marsh study areas in March 1980 probably used