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Canada geese beat humans in longstanding territory battle: study
- PaulHoule 4y agoIt is their ecological niche to live in crowded parks where there are lots of people and other Canada geese around. They are the bird which is most tolerant of harassment of all birds.
- mabbo 4y agoTheir ecological niche is to live in places with short grasses (easy to notice predators), near water. The natural predator of adults is wolves and coyotes. Their natural response to a threat isn't to run, but to mob up and threaten back. As a society, we love living near water and build water features. We prefer to have grasses trimmed short. Wolves and coyotes generally avoid the kinds of places we live in (though some coyotes are getting closer). We back down when a goose threatens us back, and learn to give them space. In short, our behaviour has created an ideal environment for the Canada Goose.
- mannerheim 4y agoIf you've got a problem with Canada gooses, you've got a problem with me, and I suggest you let that one marinate.
- trillic 4y agoBetter simmer down now there, eh?
- throwup 4y agoYou can meet all kinds of people on HN, but I never thought I would meet a Canadian goose
- canadiantim 4y agoYou didn't meet just 1, you've met many Canadian gooses
- ilyt 4y agoNever heard of marinading gooses but I guess every area had its own interesting foods
- steve_g 4y agoTake about 20% off there, bud.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoWhat if someone only has a problem with your plural of goose?
- cbfrench 4y agoMike Tyson had a pretty good run of things, and you wanna know why? No Canada gooses in his weight class.
- googlryas 4y agoI think we just need persistent, automated harassers. I'd imagine they would learn to not come to a park if every time they landed, they were chased off by a drone within a minute. Whereas just chasing them off with a car once and letting them return just teaches them to avoid the car.
- tony_cannistra 4y agoIf I had to choose between listening to a bunch of geese minding their own business and a buzzy drone, I'd choose the geese.
- lapetitejort 4y agoI tolerate geese because every spring small fuzzy babies show up and it's adorable to watch them waddle around
- quesera 4y agoOur itinerant Canadian geese have an annual ritual: - Nest in the favorite spot - Chase off the other ducks and geese who come to visit - Hatch 6-7 fuzzy babies - Parade the babies around for a few days - Lead the babies to the coyotes (coywolves) waiting at the treeline - Depart for ten months, repeat
- lapetitejort 4y agoSounds about right, but you missed biting and honking at random shiny car bumpers all day and dive-bombing people on their daily walk.
- Fatnino 4y agoAnd carpeting everything with an even layer of poop
- maxbond 4y ago
- tony_cannistra 4y agoThe article behind the press release: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wsb.1384 https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ws...
- moffkalast 4y agoNo luck catching them geese then?
- manishsharan 4y agoYou know its summertime in Canada when those @#$#$# start honking at 5 am in the morning.
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoThe geese have more "lust for life" than the majority of Canadians.
- arkades 4y ago> “I thought using these Fitbit-like devices on the neck collar was a creative way to understand resting, flying, or foraging behaviors. And when Ryan was doing all this physical work to figure out what this accelerometry data would tell us, I was very eager to see what the results were,” Ward says. “But when it was all analyzed, I was like, ‘Wow, that's not too exciting.’ Basically, when you harass, they fly a little bit more because you're scaring them, or they might be alert a little more, but it wasn't a fundamental difference.” Well, that’s one way for a PI to publicly skewer their former grad student.
- ikerrin1 4y agoCanadian Geese regiments were one of the principal tactics British and Colonial forces used to protect Upper Canada in the War of 1812. Sadly, the geese never were able to adjust to civilian life and now are just real jerks.
- bewaretheirs 4y agoJust hope they never link up with the Emus after their decisive victory in 1932.
- hprotagonist 4y agoIt's a bit mean, but i believe that sealing the eggs (with olive oil or some other equivalent air-blocking grease) in a clutch without disturbing the nest does "work": the egg dies, the geese will continue to attempt to hatch them and miss a breeding window. bother-the-geese-dogs seem less effective.
- voisin 4y agoI know one man whose property was overrun with Canadian geese. So for several seasons, he and his friend would go over the property and while one of them would use a rake and a garbage can lid for protection would push the geese away from their nests while the other would simply kick the eggs away from the nest. This was enough to reduce the population to just 1 or 2% of its original number over a few years.
- SuoDuanDao 4y agoThis feels like a covert commentary on homeless humans.
- throw0101c 4y agoBy "Canada geese" do they mean cobra chickens?
- edgyquant 4y agoFirst Emus and now Geese. It’s becoming increasingly clear that birds are the real geopolitical threat to the western led world order
- brailsafe 4y agoAs a Canadian, I can say that geese are scary