Making Our Peace with Canada Geese

By John W. Grandy, Ph.D., and John Hadidian, Ph.D.

Long before human beings arrived in what is now North America, Canada geese signaled the change of seasons by flying in precise formations overhead.

Over the last 30 years, however, the migration of Canada geese has been disrupted—perhaps even irrevocably changed—by humans. In some places, Canada geese have come to be regarded by a few vocal people as nuisances or pests. The result has been an alarming trend toward rounding up year-round "residential" geese during early summer, when the adults are molting and cannot fly, and taking them to slaughter. The Humane Society of the United States challenges this needless, brutal practice.

For millennia native peoples and Canada geese coexisted successfully. Geese were hunted for subsistence but not killed in numbers great enough to threaten the existence of the species. European colonists, however, brought with them to the New World a market economy that demanded products, an improved technology that made mass killing feasible, and a burgeoning human population that saw no harm in destroying natural resources it assumed were inexhaustible. By 1900, many species of wildlife had disappeared altogether, and many more had been driven to the brink of extinction. Some relief for bird species came with the passage in 1918 of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protected most species of birds from exploitation. Nonetheless many populations of birds have been slow to recover in the intervening 80-plus years.

As late as the 1950s, the giant Canada goose was thought to be extinct. In 1962, however, biologists confirmed that some individuals remained near Rochester, Minnesota. The discovery led to a concerted effort by many states to restore goose numbers (although less out of a motive to repair damaged biological communities than to establish a huntable population). Geese were rounded up during their annual molt and driven into pens as easily as domestic animals. The geese were then shipped, interstate and intrastate, to establish new breeding populations. Within 30 years the giant Canada goose went from near-extinction to abundance—even, according to some, overabundance.

By the mid-1990s, states started to claim they had run out of places where relocated geese would be welcome, and then began to round up their "excess" geese for slaughter. Michigan state officials captured more than 4,000 birds, about 500 of whom were sent to slaughter. The remainder were relocated to hunting areas within the state. Minnesota officials also instituted a slaughter plan.

The HSUS initiated a national campaign to oppose roundup and slaughter. Humane alternatives have not been seriously considered or attempted in many areas where geese have already been slaughtered or where roundups are being planned. State wildlife officials claim the geese pose threats to public health and safety, but their justifications for slaughter programs are unproven and often nonsensical.

"Residential" Geese

"Residential" Canada geese do not migrate to Arctic breeding grounds, preferring instead to remain year-round in continental U.S. urban and suburban neighborhoods. Why migration patterns have been abandoned is not yet clear. Some populations may never have been strong migrants; others have lost their migratory urge. Geese apparently must be taught migratory routes by other geese. They remember their place of birth and tend to return there to breed and raise their own young. But many geese have been trapped and moved during the past 30 years, and trapped goslings were often separated from adults when relocated. This separation may have broken the migratory tradition. Many Canada geese also were kept in captive flocks to serve as live decoys, tethered along the waterways followed by migrating geese to entice the migrators into shotgun range in hunting season. When released from captivity, decoy geese may have had no knowledge of migratory routes and may have had no alternative but to settle in areas that were at least familiar to them.

Whatever initially prompted Canada geese to remain in one location year-round, the lush green lawns surrounding park ponds, residential subdivisions, corporate centers, and golf courses encouraged them to stay. Unlike species of waterfowl that eat aquatic vegetation or aquatic animals, Canada geese prefer to graze on land. Fast-growing grass that is cut frequently stays succulent and makes an ideal forage for them. But because geese are flightless for long periods in summer and must raise flightless goslings for even longer periods, they are dependent on adjacent ponds or lakes that provide a safe refuge from predators.

"Problem" Geese

Some residents in many locales—a small, but vocal, minority—feel there are "too many" Canada geese in their neighborhoods. Some people simply don't like the looks of a large number of geese foraging on lawns or resting on ponds. How many geese are "too many," of course, is completely subjective and has far more to do with human values and tolerances than it does with the geese's health or safety.

One potentially legitimate issue—that Canada geese might contribute to bacterial contamination of ponds and reservoirs—has been raised repeatedly in discussions on goose populations, as if contamination necessarily occurs anywhere geese congregate. In fact, bacterial contamination in ponds and reservoirs is far more attributable to problems with human sanitation than to problems arising from any wild animals. The HSUS has yet to find any study that demonstrates a public health threat posed by geese. Good science and monitoring have shown that geese do not contribute in any significant way to elevated levels of potentially harmful bacterial contamination of water. On the contrary, studies have shown that geese often are exposed to pre-existing bacterial contamination in ponds already polluted by surface runoff. Any modest contribution from geese is easily mitigated by nonlethal methods of control, such as reducing the attractiveness of municipal water supply sites.

Some people suggest that goose populations are damaging ecosystems. This claim is utterly without basis. No study of the role of geese in urban or suburban ecosystems has ever been conducted. The principal valid complaint against Canada geese is that they defecate on lawns, golf courses, corporate grounds, and playing fields. This complaint is used to justify rounding up and destroying thousands of them annually.

Goose Roundups

In 1996, New York and Michigan initiated experimental roundup programs, and Minnesota came out with its own full-blown program, all using the same procedures previously perfected in wildlife-agency programs designed to relocate or establish Canada-goose populations. The difference is that the 1996 programs were designed to capture geese for slaughter. Flocks of molting geese are herded from the water by boat and into pens on shore, where the adults are separated from the goslings. This forcible separation is undoubtedly traumatic to the birds. Geese display strong family ties, and their protectiveness of and devotion to their young are obvious and remarkable. After separation, the goslings may be shipped hundreds of miles to wildlife refuges and left to fend for themselves without parental care. Survivors of the difficult journey will easily fall victim to predators or to hunters if they last until fall. Finally, for the crime of soiling lawns, the adults are slaughtered while fully conscious and aware, hanging by their feet from a slaughter plant's conveyor belt, their throats slit as they move along the processing line.

Minnesota may have slaughtered more than 2,000 Canada geese in 1996. At least 300 geese were rounded up and sent to slaughter in one New York community, where the slaughtered birds were supposedly to be donated to food banks. The plan backfired, however, when testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that the goose meat was contaminated by high levels of lead, feces, and feathers. The community tried to peddle the meat to a local zoo, only to have it refused there as well. Humane Solutions

Canada geese should not be killed because an intolerant few feel that there are "too many" of them. Resolving a conflict with geese—or any other wild species—requires addressing the specifics of the situation. Reducing entire populations resolves nothing.

Stop feedings. The HSUS is aware of the complex and controversial issues associated with feeding wildlife, and we realize there is no simple or universal answer to the question of whether it is humane to feed wild animals. However, where geese are perceived to be a problem, and supplemental feeding encourages a high concentration of them year-round, then responsible plans to limit and eventually eliminate their feeding are necessary. Except in unusual circumstances, Canada geese should not be fed by neighbors or others.

This sanction does not apply only to private citizens. For decades, state and federal wildlife managers have fed wild animals on a massive scale, by planting crops to encourage an abundance of certain species. Private citizens and wildlife managers must begin to think about avoiding overpopulation in concentrated areas and stop funding programs that ultimately lead to the slaughter of Canada geese.

Manage habitats. As in almost any human/wildlife conflict, management of habitat is critical to establishing a long-lasting and environmentally responsible solution. Canada geese provide an excellent example of a wildlife species whose behavior can be fairly easily modified by managing the landscape. They not only prefer to walk between water and land, but also must be able to walk to grazing areas when molting or escorting goslings. Allowing grass and shrubs to grow as little as 18 inches high in a 10-foot band around a pond can act as a deterrent to geese as it will impede their access to grazing and block their view of predators. There are fringe benefits to this kind of landscape alteration as well. It reduces mowing, filters the runoff of fertilizers and herbicides from lawn surfaces, increases habitat for other wildlife species such as songbirds, and has an aesthetic appeal that many people find more satisfying than the homogeneous and neatly trimmed lawn run down to water's edge.

Where such changes are not acceptable, temporary measures can be used. Fencing acts as a sufficient barrier, and while it lacks many of the side benefits of habitat changes, it can be put out before nesting season to discourage geese and then removed when nesting has begun elsewhere.

Divert arrivals. A variety of techniques can be used to divert or scare Canada geese and other waterfowl away from areas where they are unwelcome. Scarecrows and effigies, homemade plastic flags, radio-controlled model boats, beach balls, eyespot balloons, and Mylar® tape can effectively repel birds. More serious harassment, or hazing, can be effective when applied at the right time and practiced consistently. Such harassment ranges from people simply shooing geese away whenever they are out of the water to intense, full-time use of pyrotechnics and/or special human/dog teams. The natural herding instinct of breeds such as border collies can be put to use to keep geese continually in the water, which will so frustrate them that they will fly away and abandon a site.

Repel flocks. A chemical called methyl anthranilate has been approved recently as a useful chemical repellent for waterfowl and other bird species. This grape-flavored chemical, used in candies and soft drinks, can be applied to land or water. It is highly noxious to birds and has been used with success in repelling Canada geese from lawns and ponds. Canada geese are intelligent birds who learn quickly and remember what they learn. The greatest effectiveness in goose-control is usually achieved when a combination of humane techniques is used. Modify the habitat and erect diversions, for instance, or change the placement of scarecrows and balloons. With a little consistency in human behavior, there is every reason to assume that geese will abide by local rules. If all else fails, rendering eggs unviable, a process known as addling, remains as the next-to-the-last resort. Addling has been little pursued, but The HSUS believes it is far more humane than slaughtering adult geese.

Citizens groups, homeowners associations, and local officials frequently are unaware of the effective and humane alternatives to resolving conflicts with Canada geese. The demands of a vocal, intolerant few move the process of resolving conflicts toward a lethal end before those who believe that killing is wrong can prove their case. Numerous success stories demonstrate that humane controls have been effective and have led to permanent solutions. Humane efforts require planning and cooperation, and they take time, but they are well worth it.

This is a critical period for Canada geese—a potentially devastating time for geese already being earmarked for destruction and a chilling time for the vast majority of the public that does not want geese slaughtered. Now is the time to stop the unnecessary killing and to stop treating wild geese as one more expendable commodity. Anyone who has ever thrilled at the sight of Canada geese overhead knows that geese deserve our respect and compassion.

This article originally appeared in HSUS News.