Factors affecting escape behaviour in moulting Greylag Geese Anser anser

The escape behaviour of flightless greylag geese Anser anser has been studied at a Danish moult site. In more than 40% of escapes, a stimulus could not be discerned, suggesting some importance of inaccurate risk assessment among the geese. Quasi-predator stimuli, for example gull alarms and helicopters, were also important and caused 31–43 and 5–13% of escapes, respectively. Geese were, however, displaced in less than 5% of encounters with these stimuli. Each escape prevented geese from feeding for 19 min on average, and hence, the cost of escapes was high. This, the low in-situ predation risk, and the partly distant and not directly threatening nature of the stimuli may have weakened the response of the geese. During the main moult period the geese were, nevertheless, more susceptible to quasi-predator stimuli than before moult—the probability of escape per 15 min period was 0.16–0.22 during moult and 0 before moult. The probability of escapes among moulting geese, which formed large cohesive flocks, was, furthermore, significantly enhanced with increasing flock size. It is possible large flocks were better at detecting quasi-predator stimuli, or simply that there was a greater risk of signals from flock members being misinterpreted. Thus in terms of maintaining uninterrupted foraging it was concluded that an individual would incur extra cost by joining large flocks during the moult period.