The Composition of Goose Populations

Summary. Detailed knowledge of changes in the size and composition of goose populations is of importance in conservation. Long‐term inventories of goose numbers have so far been made only in the United States of America. American and European studies of movement, and of survival, have chiefly depended on the recovery of ringed geese. It has slowly been realised that direct observations of goose flocks can provide much of the information needed to determine the age‐structure of flocks, annual breeding success and mortality. Studies of goose populations employing all the available techniques are now being actively pursued in Britain as well as North America. Some examples are briefly discussed.