Edinburgh Napier University

  Capsule: Our multi-scale habitat selection and spatial analysis of a threatened population of Taiga Bean Geese Anser fabalis highlights the importance of monitoring and review programmes to determine whether species conservation measures are being implemented at the correct spatio-temporal scales.
Aims: To undertake a habitat selection and spatial analysis of an internationally important population of Taiga Bean Geese, and quantify the extent to which their foraging range overlaps with a protected area classified to protect their roost sites and foraging areas.
Methods: A five-year field count dataset was used to quantify foraging habitat selection at the population range scale. In addition, GPS/UHF loggers were attached to twelve birds and GPS location data were collected to quantify foraging habitat selection at an individual foraging range scale.
Results: Generalized linear models predicted that at the population foraging range scale, Bean Geese selected improved pasture, and this selection was more pronounced at greater distances from public roads. At an individual foraging range scale, compositional analysis revealed that improved pasture was significantly selected over all other habitats. There was a substantial mismatch between their individual foraging ranges and the protected area, with less than 35% (median: 21%; range 9.5 – 31.9%) of their individual full foraging ranges overlapping with the protected area.
Discussion: We recommend the use of a flexible Bean Goose management scheme that is able to accommodate the spatio-temporal foraging dynamics of the Bean Goose population and reward farmers for maintaining attractive and undisturbed foraging habitat at a landscape scale.