Summer Feeding Ecology of Lesser Snow Geese

Abstract

Changes in the characteristics of the available vegetation at the mouth of the McConnell River, Northwest Territories [Canada] (60.degree.50''N latitude, 94.degree.25''W longitude), during the arctic summer were measured in 1971 and 1973. The concurrent variations in the feeding behavior of adult lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens) were measured in 1973. Standing crop of vegetation in grazed and ungrazed sites reached a maximum in the 1st wk of Aug. The crude protein content of ungrazed vegetation showed a maximum value in late July, with a rapid decline in Aug. Grazed vegetation showed a similar rise, but with little decline in protein content in Aug. Snow geese and their goslings had access to a food supply increasing both in quantity and quality during the critical post-incubatory period. In this period adult female geese spent 17 h/day feeding, probably as much time as was physically possible. Other parameters of feeding behavior varied predictably with the changes in vegetation characteristics.