SURVIVAL

There is a marked variation in the survival to fledging of newly hatched young. For experienced breeders the survival rate to fledging was between 60 - 70%. Young hatched early had a better survival to fledging than young hatched later. Other factors of importance for the survival of small young are bad weather during the rearing period. quality of the feeding grounds and experience of the parents.

In most years, the survival of young Greylag Geese has been between 60 and 80%. During the winter 1994/95 it was much lower than in any previous year, only 54% of the young marked in 1994 had been reported alive after the first of July 1995. The survival estimate for 1996/97 was also low.

The adult survival rate for the Greylag Goose from SW Scania was around 70 - 90 %, mostly more than 80% for the first years of the study, but during the nineties the survival rate for adults decreased somwhat as an affect of the introduction of hunting on the population.As the adult breeding geese are very site-faithful there is little risk that we have overlooked any birds so that the picture should change. The field work in the breeding area was as intense in 1995 as in previous years. The high mortality in1994/95 was related to the drought conditions in the main winter area in Coto de Donana and to heavy hunting in the area. Geese wintering in the Netherlands had a higher survival.

There have also been differences in survival rate between the two main wintering areas, geese wintering in the Netherlands generally having a higher survival rate than Greylags wintering in Spain as shown in the graphs below.

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