04-09-2007 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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these habitats and the cost and biological effectiveness of egg removal compared to alternative methods. If found to be both cost and biologically effective in reducing goose populations, expansion of the TCMA goose program to include limited egg removal at non - airport locations might be in order. An advantage such a program would be an extension of the time, now limited to the 5 -week summer flightless period, during which TCMA population control could be done. A drawback to such a program, unless done by a limited number of contractors, would be the agency labor required to administer a plethora of permits issued to cities, golf courses, lake associations, etc. could offset any gain in efficiency. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study are to: 1. Determine the Canada goose egg removal diminishing return functions for island and small wetland habitats. 2. Measure the efficacy of egg removal in limiting the summer and fall goose population at locations where the technique is employed. 3. Compute costs of egg removal and compare with other methods of limiting urban goose populations. METHODS: All techniques to be used in this study are standard methods that have been used previously. With the exception of embryo aging, the nest searching and nest and eggs data recording methods will those described by Cooper (1978). Embryo development (Cooper and Batt 1972) will be used to ascertain the chronology of establishment for nests found after clutch completion. A 10% formalin embryocide will injected into the eggs to prevent hatching in the event that the eggs are not removed by 28th day of incubation (c.f. Cooper 1978). Population changes will be monitored by weekly counts of geese found on and within 1 km of an egg removal control site. Fall numbers will be measured by weekly counts (Cooper 2001b). 3