Jl. Belant et al., REPELLENCY OF METHYL ANTHRANILATE TO PREEXPOSED AND NAIVE CANADA GEESE, The Journal of wildlife management, 60(4), 1996, pp. 923-928
To improve our understanding of the effectiveness of avian feeding rep
ellents, we evaluated whether Canada geese (Branta canadensis) exhibit
ed learned avoidance of ReJeX-iT AG-36 (AG-36), a methyl anthranilate
(MA) formulation containing 14.5% MA (vol/vol). During 2 experiments i
n August-September 1995, we pre-exposed geese orally to 0.0, 1.3, or 4
.0 g AG-36 and released them onto 10- x 10-m grass plots treated with
AG-36 at rates of 22.6 and 67.8 kg/ha. Mean numbers of bill contacts a
nd mean numbers of geese observed on control and treated plots were si
milar (P greater than or equal to 0.21) for geese pre-exposed or naive
to AG-36. Overall, mean numbers of bill contacts and mean numbers of
geese also were similar (P greater than or equal to 0.56) on control a
nd treated plots. Mean mass of droppings on control and treated plots
was similar (P > 0.99) during the experiment with 22.6 kg/ha AG-36 but
was greater (P = 0.01) on control plots during the experiment with 67
.8 kg/ha AG-36. We conclude that learned avoidance of AG-36 by Canada
geese preexposed orally to 1.3 or 4.6 g AG-36 did not occur and that A
G-36 applied to turf in enclosures at rates of 22.6 and 67.8 kg/ha was
not effective as a grazing repellent for geese.