COTTAAR F (2009) Pink-footed Geese Anser brachyrhynchus exploit maize as a new food source in the Netherlands. LIMOSA 82 (1): 23-25.

During autumn migration nearly the entire Svalbard breeding population of Pink-footed Geese stays in Southwest Friesland, the Netherlands, where they use a limited number of traditional staging sites in farmland. So far, the geese almost exlusively fed on improved pastures. However, recently a tendency to exploit harvested fields of maize has developed, following a general expansion of maize fields in the region (from 440 to 3513 ha between 1987-2003 in the study area). In October- November 2008, for the first time large concentrations of Pink-footed Geese were observed to feed onmaize stubble. The geese clearly preferred fieldswith large amounts of spilled maize (cobs) or fields where grass and herbs like Stellaria sp. had emerged after the harvest. Most fields were exploited for 7-10 days and then abandoned. As harvest was spread over several weeks, the geese were able to feed onmaize stubble for a prolonged period. FromDecember onwards, after harvest was completed, the geese entirely switched to feeding on grassland. The geese quickly searched newly harvested fields for (parts of)maize cobs. Often, complete families were seen to feed on the same cob(s) and competition between families was observed at the best spots. In flocks of geese feeding on maize the percentage of first-year birds was clearly higher (21.9-36.8%, mean 26.9%, N = 1496) than that in the whole study area (11.7%, N = 17,126) at the same time, and this difference was confirmed in a direct comparison in three flocks that were spread over maize fields and adjacent grassland.
      Although feeding on arable crops is a rather new phenomenon for Pink-footed Geese in the Netherlands, Pinkfeet have been reported to exploit arable fields, notably cereal stubble and autumn-sown cereals in Norway and Denmark. Also at thewinter staging sites in Belgium, feeding on autumn-sown cereals and maize stubble has been observed recently. These observations show that despite their traditional use of staging areas and food resources, geese are very well able to react to new developments like expansion of new crops. However, asmaize is harvested in a limited period in autumn and fiels seem to be attractive for only 7-10 days thereafter, grassland will probably remain the most important food resource.Pink-footed Goose Anser brachyrhynchus = Anser fabalis brachyrhynchus

[pdf only for members] [dutch summary]