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Forage digestibility and intake by lesser snow geese: effects of dominance and resource heterogeneity

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Abstract

We measured forage intake, digestibility, and retention time for 11 free-ranging, human-imprinted lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) as they consumed underground stembases of tall cotton-grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) on an arctic staging area in northeastern Alaska. Geese fed in small patches (\(\bar x\)=21.5 m2) of forage that made up ≤3% of the study area and consisted of high-quality “aquatic graminoid” and intermediate-quality “wet sedge” vegetation types. Dominant geese spent more time feeding in aquatic graminoid areas (r=0.61), but less total time feeding and more time resting than subdominant geese. Subdominant geese were displaced to areas of wet sedge where cotton-grass was a smaller proportion of underground biomass. Geese metabolized an average of 48% of the organic matter in stembases and there was a positive correlation between dominance and organic matter metabolizability (r=0.61). Total mean retention time of forage was 1.37 h and dry matter intake was 14.3 g/h. Snow geese that stage on the coastal plain of the Beaufort Sea likely use an extensive area because they consume a large mass of forage and exploit habitats that are patchily distributed and make up a small percentage of the landscape. Individual variation in nutrient absorption may result from agonistic interactions in an environment where resources are heterogeneously distributed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alaska Science Center, National Biological Service, 1011 E. Tudor Road, 99503, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Jerry W. Hupp & Donna G. Robertson

  2. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Robert G. White & James S. Sedinger

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  1. Jerry W. Hupp
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  2. Robert G. White
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  3. James S. Sedinger
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  4. Donna G. Robertson
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Hupp, J.W., White, R.G., Sedinger, J.S. et al. Forage digestibility and intake by lesser snow geese: effects of dominance and resource heterogeneity. Oecologia 108, 232–240 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00334646

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00334646

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