Greater Snow Goose population monitoring at Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area

Greater Snow Geese are back at the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area.
 

Since 1978, the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area (NWA) has witnessed a spectacular increase in the Greater Snow Goose population. Indeed, at the beginning of the century, the population was only about 3,000 birds but now there are close to 1 million. The Cap Tourmente NWA was created to ensure this species’ survival. During their biennial journey between the Atlantic coast and the Far North, Greater Snow Geese stop in this area where they feed on American Bulrush rhizomes and also grain in the fields.

At high tide, Greater Snow Geese are sometimes nearer to the shore and more numerous in the fields; observation is thus much easier (tide tables).

The Greater Snow Geese surveys done at Cap Tourmente NWA over the last two falls (Figure 1) show a peak abundance around mid-October. Up to 42,200 Greater Snow Geese were counted in 2017.

Figure 1 : Number of Greater Snow Geese at Cap Tourmente NWA for 2016, 2017 and 2018

Data for this graph are available in the long description