Don H. Orr

Migratory Canada Goose Population Affiliation and Interchange Among Four National Wildlife Refuges in Tennessee and Alabama

Wildlife Outstanding Technical Paper

Managers have assumed that migratory geese regularly interchange among wintering refuges, providing a potential to manage them as a complex. The primary purpose of our study was to determine population affiliation and magnitude of goose movements among 4 national wildlife refuges (NWR) in Tennessee and northern Alabama, thereby assessing the feasibility of this approach. Interchange and population affiliation were examined using neck collar observations from 1977-1998. Population affiliation varied among refuges, with Southern James Bay geese being most common at Wheeler NWR, and...