Greven, F. (1994) The relation between diet and familysize of the Barnacle Goose during the summer on Spitsbergen. Master's Thesis / Essay, Biology.
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Abstract
During the summer of 1990 droppings of a population of Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis were collected that could be attributed to observed geese. The observations revealed whether droppings were produced by males, females and young and to which family they belonged. In the zoological laboratory in Haren of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen faecal analyses of the droppings of 10 selected families were executed during 1993. The diet composition of the geese were deduced by means of the data thus deduced. Subsequently several questions were examined with the aid of computational models of plant-ecology. The questions whether there are differences between the composition of the diets of males,females and juveniles was confirmed. Juveniles eat far more horsetail than the adults do. This difference was so big that it was even significant for the period of 3 July up to 17 August whereas this difference was actually solely caused by the difference in the period of 3 July up to 12 July. Juveniles eat on the contrary less Mosses than the adults do. The second question whether there is a trend in the course of time is also positively answered. The percentage of Salix decreases for adults and young, the percentage of Mosses decreases for adults and the percentage of Equisetum decreases for young. The percentages of Graminoids and the Rest group increases over the season for young and the percentage of Graminoids for adults is highest at the end of July. The third question was if there is a difference between the diets of large families and the diet of small families. The adults in small families eat far more Mosses than the adults in the larger families do. The juveniles of the large families eat much more of the rest group than the juveniles of the small families. Both differences seem to be of benefit for the geese.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay) |
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| Degree programme: | Biology |
| Thesis type: | Master's Thesis / Essay |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2018 07:47 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Feb 2018 07:47 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/9985 |
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