This project continues a 30-year study of Black Brandt geese on the Tutakoke River in Alaska. To date, 2,000 individuals have been marked and 2,000 previously-marked individuals are monitored annually. The length of the study provides a large sample of Brant that are now over 20 years old, allowing the researchers to examine the consequences of reproduction, senescence, and life-history tradeoffs in a long-lived vertebrate. Data collected over the next five years will explore the new hypothesis that local density, rather than parental investment, influences optimal brood size. The researchers will also pursue a second surprising finding, which is that gosling success likely results from pre-fledging survival rather than from post-fledging effects.
The Tutakoke River Brant study provides the principal demographic data used to manage the Black Brandt and other avian species. The researchers work closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pacific Flyway to develop effective management plans. They also work closely with Native Alaskan residents of Chevak, Alaska, particularly to involve students from the village in the research project. Graduate and undergraduate students also gain research experience by participation in this research.
