Geese Migration at Yahara and Vilas

Geese at park

Does geese migration correlate with the weather, location, and the amount of people who utilize both Vilas and Yahara Park?

Authors: Michelle Dittrich, Elissa Kube, Taryn Rechlicz, and Heather Stapleton

Abstract
Our group studied geese at two different parks in Madison. We counted geese at Vilas Park and Yahara Park between the months of October and November. The study was done in hopes to find a correlation between geese migration numbers and weather, location and number of people at each park. Our hypothesis was that the geese would have a tendency to migrate to the parks in the month of November, at a park with few people and a location where the geese would have more food, and water available to them. Our studies showed that geese occurred at both parks in a higher number during the month of November, rather than October. The geese also had a tendency to migrate in higher numbers at Vilas Park, which is much closer to a large body of water. However, Vilas has higher human traffic during the months of October and November than Vilas Park, which contradicts our hypothesis that geese migrate to a park with low human use.

Introduction
Our study was to determine if the weather, location and amount of people that utilized the Vilas and Yahara Park affected the migration of geese to either of these parks. Our hypothesis was that geese would have a tendency to migrate to parks with fewer people, colder temperatures, and a location where the geese would have more food and water available to them during the month of November. The geese that are migrating are the Giant Canadian Geese, Branta Canadensis Maxima. These geese have a tendency to migrate short distances, which makes Wisconsin a prime location of migration because of the short distance to Canada. This has become an issue because the Canadian Geese population has increased rapidly over the years, exceeding 1 million. Our group studied the number of geese that migrate to two of Madison’s parks, in hopes to find a correlation between the number of geese at each park and weather, location and amount of people utilizing the parks. We decided to study these geese patterns at Vilas and Yahara Park because of the over abundance of geese at each park which is causing problems. The geese frequently come in contact with human beings in agricultural and urban settings; such as at Yahara the geese not only bother the golfers, but they eat the grass throughout the course destroying the greens and fairways. At Vilas the geese bother the children who are participating in sports on the fields, as well as the children bothering the geese. Geese leave feces which may be unhealthy for children that would be playing around that specific area (http://www.wnrmag.com/stories/1998/dec98/geese.htm). From past studies we know that the problem mostly exists in the month of November, and that there have been prior attempts to divert the geese from popular areas in Madison. Our goal is to study these geese numbers and patterns in order to find a solution in helping geese migrate to safe parks in Madison and help the Madison population enjoy their parks without extreme disturbance from the geese population. The best way for our group to do this was by counting the number of geese in each park and determining when and why they migrate to these parks.

Methods
We counted the geese at 1:00pm at both parks for 5 days in October and 5 days in November; this gave us our best estimate of how many geese were at each park. Our group then compared and contrasted the data we had and the data that was available from prior years. The studies showed that from year 2001 to 2005 the number of geese have grown in the month of November, and decreased in the month of October. While counting the geese at each park we took mental note that much fewer people were at Yahara during the time we counted compared to Vilas. From our research on population numbers of both parks Vilas area code had a significantly higher population density then at Yahara. The number of families with children was also higher in the area of Vilas. This correlates with the idea that more people would be inclined to utilize Vilas Park rather than Yahara. After collecting all of the data, by counting all the geese at the parks, we researched the average temperate from years 2001 to 2005 for both the months of October and November; we did this on the web, at http://home.wi.rr.com/vallone. We found that the temperature in October and November increased steadily from year 2002 to 2005, this information links with the high number of geese waiting to migrate until the month of November.

Results
Our studies showed that geese tend to migrate in November to Yahara more than Vilas Park. The geese count stayed steady for the month of October, but in November the geese count slowly began to rise in both parks(see graph two, Geese Average in Oct. and Nov.). Yahara’s count was lagging compared to Vilas in October but caught up in November (see graph one, Yahara and Vilas Geese Average). We also took into account the data from last years geese count and compared it with the counts that we made from this year to see if the geese were following any certain patterns. We researched at http://home.wi.rr.com/vallone to find the average temperatures of both November and October. In the month of October the average temperatures was 14degrees C. in November the average temperature was 8 degrees C.

Table One: Yahara and Vilas Geese Average

Table Two: Vilas Geese Average (2001-2005)

Discussion
From the results that we found we are now able to see that the temperatures help explain why in 2005 the month of November has a higher number of problems with geese migration than October; this is due to the increase of average temperature from year 2002 to 2005. The traffic of people at Vilas is much more evident than at Yahara, in which case contradicted our hypothesis, but the location of Vilas seems to be more adaptable to geese than Vilas because of the access of a large body of water. The graphs give a more precise number of geese in each park. The Wingra Watershed Community needs to work together to find a method to reduce the amount of geese migration and from having them migrate to these specific areas. While conducting this study it is easy to miscount the number of geese at the parks, so the results may be skewed. Also, when looking at the past data there may have been miscalculations. During the time we conducted the study, one o’clock, this may have been a time when the geese were migrating. For the future there are numerous ways to help stop the migration of geese to parks. Parks can try to use a Sheep Dog to scare the geese away from the park. Also, have the grass around the ponds or lakes grow so the geese are afraid to go in the water, because they are unable to see the prey in the surrounding areas. Another method is to shake the gosling eggs before they hatch this kills the embryo inside the egg, this way nothing is keeping the geese at the parks. Management of the parks may want to ticket those who feed the geese. Some long term options are sporting hunting, relocating the geese or even harvesting the geese. Therefore, geese migration will always be an issue until a community takes control of the situation.

Average Temperature in Madison Wisconsin Number of Days of Precipitation
October 2001: 48.8 F October 2001: 11 days
November 2001: 44.8 F November 2001: 14 days
October 2002: 45.7 F October 2002: 20 days
November 2002: 34.7 F November 2002: 7 days
October 2003: 46.7 F October 2003: 14 days
November 2003: 34.8 F November 2003: 16 days
October 2004: 48.8 F October 2004: 15 days
November 2004: 40.9 F November 2004: 14 days
October 2005: 51.5 F October 2005: 9 days
November 2005: 36.6 F November 2005: 17 days

Reference
Edgewood College. http://natsci.edgweood.edu/wingra/wingra_goosepop.htm
http://home.wi.rr.com/vallone
Lorman, Jim. “Giant Canada Geese in the Wingra Watershed: A Preliminary Report.
May 27, 2003.
Neighborhood Profile www.bestplace.net/zip-code.com
Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine.
http://www.wnrmag.com/stories/1998/dec98/geese.htm
The Old Farmer’s Almanac. http://www.almanac.com/weathercenter/