Distribution of Canada Geese in Vilas Park from September- November 2001-2006
By: Ashley Feldbruegge, Elizabeth Waldinger, and Lauren Pigott
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The number of geese in Vilas Park from September through November 2001-2006 has significantly increased over the years. Our group focused on the geese population in the nine zones in Vilas Park. We took a closer look at which zones had a higher concentration of geese. We looked at a map of all the nine zones, and through our observations we noticed that certain zones contained more geese then others. We hypothesized that zones one, three, four, six, and seven would have the highest number of geese because this is where the least amount of human interaction was occurring. Our original hypothesis was not supported by the data from previous years. We found that zones two and five had a higher population in previous years than they did in 2006. Our data were collected by counting the geese in the park weekly from September to November of 2006. Our results confirmed we had hypothesized incorrectly in stating zones one, three, four, six, and seven would consistently have the highest number of geese per zone.
Vilas Park in Madison, Wisconsin is not only the home to ducks, but also the home for many Canada geese. The geese population at the Vilas Park has increased significantly over the years at the park and many want to know why. Branta canadensis love to make their home in grasslands and in man-made areas, such as golf courses and parks (Dewey 1). In the early 1900’s the Canada goose population was nearly eliminated, but today Canada geese, known as Branta canadensis, can be found across North America, and are more abundant now than at anytime in our history (Craven 5). There has been an increase in conflicts between humans and geese correlated to the population growth (Craven 5). These types of geese that make up the population at Vilas Park are highly social and can be found in flocks, which may explain why there are a certain number of geese in each of the zones (Dewey 1). Vilas Park is a place where people can walk their dogs, ride their bikes, and feed the ducks. As a contrast to so many people going in and out of the park this can affect the geese population throughout each of the nine zones. Many of the geese seem to be afraid of humans as well as other animals that may be going through the park. The more humans in such an area can cause the number of geese to be low. Geese that remain in one spot for an extended time period can graze over the land and cause dead spots in the terrain, as well as the spread of avian diseases (Craven 5).
Our study took a closer look at the goose population of Vilas Park of the Wingra Watershed in Madison, Wisconsin. Our group wanted to know if there were more geese in some areas than others. We used weekly counts of the geese in each of the zones one through nine and compiled the data from the previous years, which included the months of September, October, and November from 2001-2006. We compiled the three month data with ours and found the monthly and yearly averages of each of the nine zones for the months of September, October, and November from 2001 to 2006. We hypothesized that zones one, three, four, six, and seven will have the most geese present in their zone due to the lack of human interaction in these areas of Vilas Park.
In our study we counted geese in Vilas Park once a week for approximately three months and also compiled data that had been collected over the previous years. Binoculars were used for getting an accurate count. We counted the geese in 9 different zones (see Figure 1). The purpose of breaking the area up into zones was to investigate possible trends that could correlate to modifications that have been made in the landscape of Vilas Park. We paired ourselves into groups and alternated weeks of counting. After we counted the geese, we compared our data to the data of the previous years, and looked for trends. We then compiled the data into graphs, which aided in showing the trends. We averaged the total number of geese for each of the years for the specified months in the park. We also averaged the number of geese per month in the park. We decided to take a closer look at each of the zones in the park and took the average for each month in each year. Figure 1 shows the zones we used while counting the geese and examining the data from the previous years. Zone 9, which is not located on the map, is located to the left of zone 8, under zone 7.
Figure 1. Map showing Vilas Park, divided into
8 zones.
In Figure 2 we
show the average number of geese in Vilas Park through the years 2001-2006. We
concentrated on the months of September, October, and November. There were many
more geese in 2003 than in the previous years. The numbers in 2001, 2002, 2004,
and 2005 were all similar. Although there were fewer geese in 2006 than 2003,
2006 still surpassed the other years. The total number of geese was taken and we
counted the number of observations. We then took the average number of geese for
all the zones for the months.
Average Number of Geese per Year
Figure 2. The average number of geese observed in Vilas Park in September, October, and November 2001-2006.
After
comparing the average number for all the months and all the years, we looked at
each month separately. Once again we noticed 2003 and 2006 had the largest count
of geese. In 2003, November had the most geese and in 2006, October had the
most. In 2001 we noticed that October had a very high number of geese compared
to November. We also noticed that in all the years except for 2003, October had
the highest number of geese. Figure 3 shows the trends and fluctuations in each
month for the given year.
Average Number of Geese per Month
Figure 3. Graph showing average number of geese for September, October, and November for the years 2001-2006.
After comparing the average number of geese in Vilas Park for the months of September-November, we then looked at each of the nine zones individually. When looking at the data, we noticed that the zones which seem to be the most used are zones 2 and zone 3.
In 2003, 2004, and 2005 zone 2 had and increasing number of geese. In the years of 2002, and 2006 zone 2 had fewer geese present. Zone 3 in 2002 had 20% of geese in its zone, in 2003 and 2004 the number of geese in the zone jumped to 22%, and then there was a decrease to 14% in 2005 and 2006. In the year 2002, zone 5 only had 6% of geese in the zone, the number of geese in zone 5 increases through the years 2003-2004, and since has decreased. Zone 6 had a high number of geese present in the year 2002 also in 2006.
In 2001 Zones 2 and 5 had the highest number of geese using their zone. In the year 2002, zone 2 and 6 had the highest number of geese using the zone. For the year 2003 zone 3 and zone 6 had the highest number of geese present. In 2004 and 2005 zone 2 also had the highest number of geese present for the month of October. However in 2006 zones 1 and 6 had the highest number of geese present. For the month of November the zone with the most geese was Zone 2 for the years of 2001-2004. There were no data collected from 2005. In 2006 zone 2 did not have as much use as it had previously had. Zone 4 had more use with 39% of the geese using the zone.
Our group
hypothesized that zones one, three, four, six, and seven would consistently have
the highest population of geese per zone when compared to the other zones of
previous years. Our group hypothesized this based on our observations. We looked
at the data collected from previous years and compared it to our own data that
we had collected in 2006. We thought zones one, three, four, six, and seven
would have all been the highest because of greater human use. We noticed that in
the previous years zones two and five had the highest average population of
geese. We also compared the average total number of geese for the entire zones
one through nine from the years 2001-2006. We noticed that in 2003 and in 2006
there were a higher average number of geese than in the previous years. This
might be due to weather, changes in the climate, population of people coming in
and out of the park, and species that have been making their homes in and around
the park.
The zones from our data that we collected in 2006 showed that zones two and five
had no significance geese populations. When we compared the data from 2006 to
the data from 2001-2005, we noticed that zones two and five have had a major
decline in the geese population in 2006. This decrease in zones two and five may
be due to an increase in activity in the zones. If we were to conduct this
experiment again, we would focus more on zones two and five. Another reason for
this decline could be the planting of vegetation to act as a buffer in 2005.
This is supposed to discourage goose activity in certain zones.
Possible errors that could have occurred may include: not being able to count
every goose, and the geese may have moved, therefore, potential error of
counting them more than once could have occurred. Also, the distinctions between
zones were difficult when the geese were in between two zones. Some of the
implications may be the geese were moving from zone two and five to other zones
because they were deterred from the zones. It is useful to know how the geese
are distributed throughout the park because the zones the geese are using are
zones that humans are not using. By seeing changes in the zones the geese are
using, we now know the human population is more present in these zones.