Habitat
Aleutian Cackling geese breed exclusively on a small number of Aleutian Islands (USFWS 1991). Nesting areas are located on grassy hillsides, along streams, in marshes and lagoons, and on rugged sea cliffs cut by watercourses where grasses and sedges grow in profusion (Murie 1959, Jones 1963, USFWS 1980). On the Y-K Delta different subspecies of the Crackling Goose breed in mixed arctic graminoid and low tundra vegetation on small islands in tundra ponds, small peninsulas that extend into ponds, and shorelines of ponds, lakes, and river on the floodplain of the delta (Mowbray et al. 2002).
References
Jones, R. D. 1963. Buldir Island, site of a remnant breeding population of Aleutian Canada geese. Wildfowl Trust Annual 14:80-84.
Mowbray, T. B., C. R. Ely, J. S. Sedinger, and R. E. Trost. 2002. Canada Goose (Branta canadensis). In The Birds of North America, Vol. 18, No. 682 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.
Murie, O. J. 1959. Fauna of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula. USDI, USFWS Rep. no. 61. Washington, D. C. N. Amer. Fauna 61: 1-364.
USFWS. 1980. Selected vertebrate endangered species of the seacoast of the United States – Aleutian Canada goose. FWS/OBS-80/01.34. USFWS, Biological Services Program. 9 p.
USFWS. 1991. Aleutian Canada Goose (Branta canadensis leucopareia) recovery plan. Aleutian Canada Goose Recovery Team. USFWS, Anchorage, AK. 55 pp.
