| Summary: | For many Arctic-breeding birds migrating in steps, migration is not only a transit between wintering and breeding areas, but also a preparation for breeding, because for these birds breeding must commence soon after arrival to the breeding area. Foraging decisions at each stopover site and their energetic consequences are therefore of great importance to these birds. In this thesis, I have aimed to address some aspects of the foraging decisions and behaviour of pink-footed geese during their spring migration to the Arctic breeding area. I combined field techniques with telemetry technology as well as modelling tools to address questions about how geese forage and fuel during their spring migration. The first three presented manuscripts focus on changes in goose foraging behaviour and energetics over the course of the day, a stopover season and the entire migration. They also focus on variety of factors having an influence on foraging behaviour, energetics, and habitat selection of pink-footed geese. The last manuscript utilises the results obtained in the first three manuscripts, results from a resource depletion model and knowledge from existing literature in an individual-based model to address the question: which foraging decision do geese make at the Mid-Norway stopover site.
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