Arctic migrating barnacle geese utilise accommodation fields in a new agricultural staging area

The recovery of threatened species after conservation measures can lead to
human-wildlife conflicts. One example of such is the recent population
growth of the Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis, a large herbivorous bird.
During migration, geese stage in large numbers on agricultural fields in
range countries and cause substantial damage to farms. A combination of
repelling fields, where geese were chased off by humans, and accommodation
fields, which provide refuge sites for foraging geese, has been suggested
as an effective management tool to mitigate conflicts.  Using
high-resolution satellite tracking data, we investigated habitat selection
of 41 barnacle geese staging in Northern Karelia, Finland, during spring
2021. We estimated relative habitat use by these geese and conducted a
fine-scale analysis of their use of different fields by employing Hidden
Markov Models and integrated step-selection analysis. Fields included
normal crop (no goose management), project and other (private and Nature
2000 area) accommodation fields, and repelling fields. Project
accommodation and repelling fields were established on areas known to have
a long history of high grazing pressure by barnacle geese.  We
found that behavioural data of geese can be categorized into three
different states (static, slow, and fast movement). Static and slow states
were used for local field selection, fast state for field selection in the
regional area, and all states for field selection after leaving a
repelling field.  Overall, relative habitat use indicated that
geese utilise accommodation fields more than expected by their
availability. Integrated step-selection analyses revealed that geese
avoided normal and repelling versus project accommodation fields at the
regional scale. At the local scale, they preferred project accommodation
fields over all other fields. After leaving a repelling field, geese did
not show preference for any accommodation over repelling fields. 
Synthesis and application: Geese show individual selection for
accommodation fields compared to normal or repelling fields across several
scales. Our results suggest that the accommodation field concept –
consisting of refuge areas and no-go areas where geese are repelled from –
can help to mitigate the human-wildlife conflict using local
stakeholders' knowledge.