Hunting for the optimal hunt

• Main Authors: Jensen, Gitte Høj, Madsen, Jesper, Wisz, Mary, Tombre, Ingunn
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Nesset; Norway; Svalbard; Pink-footed Goose; Tundra
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/hunting-for-the-optimal-hunt(56bef9f2-459e-42d1-acd1-b51c00f4291b).html; http://www.iugb2013.org/docs/O.TL.15_Jensen.pdf

The Svalbard breeding population of pink-footed geese winters in Denmark, The Netherlands and Belgium, and Nord-Trøndelag is a central staging area both during spring and autumn. During autumn the geese feed primarily on stubble fields (which does not conflict with agriculture), but in spring they feed on pastures and newly sown cereal fields, to great economic expense to farmers. The agricultural conflict has intensified over time as the pink-footed goose population has increased from c. 20,000 in the 1970s to an unprecedented peak of c. 80,000 in 2011 and as the spring staging period in Nord-Trøndelag has become extended. In the recently endorsed AEWA adaptive International Species Management Plan for the Svalbard population of the pink-footed goose a stable population target of 60,000 has been agreed in order to reduce conflicts with agriculture and damage to the tundra vegetation in Svalbard. The population target shall be achieved by a better organization of hunting in Denmark and Norway, where the population has an open season. To reach the stated goal of the AEWA plan, experimental hunting strategies was set up in Nord-Trøndelag to find the optimal hunting method. At Skogn and Nesset, both local areas in Nord-Trøndelag, the hunting has been organized in 2011 and 2012. At Skogn all hunting is organized through a website “gasejakt.no”, where the hunters reserve fields for hunting on a day to day basic. Through this website it is possible to regulate the hunting by making areas available or unavailable for hunting. At Nesset, the research group has full control of the hunting and only one hunting team, led by a hunter associated with the research program, has had access in 2011 and 2012. At Skogn the hunting has been organized with fixed hunting days during the hunting season in 2011 and 2012. At Nesset the hunting method was changed between 2011 and 2012 on an experimental basis. In 2011 the hunt was organized as one or two subsequent hunting days followed by a changeable period of restricted hunting. In ...