4 ms·

I tolerate geese because every spring small fuzzy babies show up and it's adorable to watch them waddle around

quesera 4y ago
Our 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 ago
  Sounds 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 ago
    And carpeting everything with an even layer of poop
- maxbond 4y ago
  Wait, what? Can you elaborate on the part about the coyotes? You're saying they have an annual ritual of infanticide? That's. Horrifying. I wonder if this particular flock suffered some kind of trauma.
  - quesera 4y ago
    Nothing so complicated. The geese are just compelled by nature to walk into the woods with their goslings shortly after hatching. And coyotes have their own habits, of course. There's a reason geese lay so many eggs. If they all survived, the population would quadruple every year. The average Canada goose lives for about 20 years in the wild, so if you think about it... for population to remain steady, more than 99% of goslings have to die. Still, every year I root for the goslings. Coyotes have plenty of other things to eat. None so convenient and tasty, perhaps.
    - maxbond 4y ago
      Bizarre! Thanks for elaborating. Predation and parasitism are both so fascinating.
    - lapetitejort 4y ago
      Very interesting. We had woods around my geese's nesting area. I'm not sure if we had coyotes (wouldn't be surprised if I never saw them). We did have ponds with the occasional alligator. That might be enough to thin the flock.
      - maxbond 4y ago
        I don't know about coywolves, but if you live near coyotes, you'll hear them if you don't see them.

Our 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 ago
Sounds 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 ago
  And carpeting everything with an even layer of poop
maxbond 4y ago
Wait, what? Can you elaborate on the part about the coyotes? You're saying they have an annual ritual of infanticide? That's. Horrifying. I wonder if this particular flock suffered some kind of trauma.
- quesera 4y ago
  Nothing so complicated. The geese are just compelled by nature to walk into the woods with their goslings shortly after hatching. And coyotes have their own habits, of course. There's a reason geese lay so many eggs. If they all survived, the population would quadruple every year. The average Canada goose lives for about 20 years in the wild, so if you think about it... for population to remain steady, more than 99% of goslings have to die. Still, every year I root for the goslings. Coyotes have plenty of other things to eat. None so convenient and tasty, perhaps.
  - maxbond 4y ago
    Bizarre! Thanks for elaborating. Predation and parasitism are both so fascinating.
  - lapetitejort 4y ago
    Very interesting. We had woods around my geese's nesting area. I'm not sure if we had coyotes (wouldn't be surprised if I never saw them). We did have ponds with the occasional alligator. That might be enough to thin the flock.
    - maxbond 4y ago
      I don't know about coywolves, but if you live near coyotes, you'll hear them if you don't see them.