Gander with rather strange behavior.

[Tevyes Dad]

Hi Everybody, This is my first post on the Geese forum, I am usually in ducks. I have a bunch of ducks, but no geese. But today, my wife and I went to the fairgrounds to feed the ducks and geese (we feed them all-flock and sometimes bring the geese lettuce extra). When we were done, we walked along the fence back toward our car. We were approached by what I think, judging by the longer neck and slight undercarriage, was a White Chinese gander. He looked to be in fairly good shape. My wife knelt down by the fence and he walked right up to her and honked every 20 seconds or so and just stood there looking at her. less that a foot and a half away from him was one of the piles of all flock we had poured inside the fence, so if he was hungry, he could have eaten out of that pile. Instead he just looked at my wife and periodically honked. He did not put on a defensive or offensive display and he was at the same time, very calm and very intense. My wife rubbed his bill a bit with her finger and he let her. Sometimes he nibbled at her finger, but again not aggressively. Then she scratched his chest and he let her. While he was getting his chest scratched, he stopped honking so much and just looked at her. This went on for quite a few minutes. I honestly believe that if there was no fence there he would have sat in her lap. Finally we got up and went back to the car. He followed along the fence and kept honking and after we loaded up the car, my wife walked back up to the fence. I swear he not only met her, but put his chest right against the fence so she could scratch it a little more. Then we left.



These pictures are in order and cover about 7 seconds. But you can see the goose is aware and accepting of the contact and from the fact that it greatly reduced its honking, I would even guess it enjoyed the contact. We had not at anytime today directly fed this goose and none of the waterfowl were near the food piles when we made them.

Now I know that this isn't a "wild" gander indigenous to Montana, but unless he was dropped off yesterday, I would think that he would act more like.... all the other non-Canada geese that are there. Begging for food but otherwise somewhat wary of people. So my guess is that he was raised in a home as a solitary bird so he imprinted not only on his parents (who are long gone), but identified as a human since he didn't have any siblings to grow up with to identify as a goose. This means that my wife was "his kind" and the goose in the background was some other non-threatening animal he could get along with. Does this seem right to any of you goose people, or is there another explanation that makes sense to you? I am by no means any expert (I don't know if I got the breed right, let alone the gender or understand the behavior at all.) We are considering adding geese to our little family in a year or two, and I am trying to understand the similarities and differences between them and ducks and learn as much as I can before this time comes.

So please let me benefit from all your experience and tell me where I am right, wrong or just silly. Thanks in advance

 

[Franki]

That is how I got my Oliver.
I happened one day to decide to go see my,parents on my lunch hour.
I drove by a field of approx 10 acres that would get passing Canada geese.
You couldn't miss that blob of white in the midst of them.
I kept telling myself not to even look on the way back to work but of course I did.
After work a called a neighbor, took a bag of corn and went back.
Who got out of the van, walked onto the field, shook the bag and he came running.
It took us about 5 minutes to get a hold of him. He couldn't fly. He has been here since 2003.
It was the beginning of June. The field is one piece of property belonging to a business. That business is land locked with four lane highways on all four sides with some adjoining businesses.
I have always believed that as someone said it seemed like a good idea at Easter time but then grew up. Whoever dumped him probably saw the Canadian geese and figured goose....goose.
Good place for him but it wasn't. When the Canadians left Oliver would have been alone.

Linda

 

[Tevyes Dad]

How do they get behind the fence? is there a gate? Gosh too bad there aren't rescue groups around ya'll that would get the domestics and care for them and find them good caring homes. Here in NC there is such a group called Carolina Water fowl and they do domestic and wild rescues If they weren't 2 hrs away I'd volunteer there.

This is actually a "sanctuary" that is funded from some kind of memorial fund. The fence completely encloses the pond and woods area, but is open out to the lower smaller pond where there are some viewing benches and shelters. I think they maintain the woods/pond (pick up the litter), but think they leave the ducks to do their own foraging and don't do anything special for the dumped domestics. I have only seen the ducks go to the lower pond, never any geese and the ducks have a comfort zone of about 60 ft (maybe 30 if you are throwing food at them - I have had an individual duck come within 10ft, but not a group of them). I imagine that the dumps happen in the lower pond, and the birds work their way up to the upper area which is better for them.

Now you need to share the others, I need a happy story or stories. Makes me sad to hear about dumped animals, and Easter right around the corner makes me what to go and protest at TSC lol

X2 Unfortunately, Easter is the time many are renewing their flocks so it is a legitimate time also. Metzer used to raise the price on their ducklings on either side of Easter with a notice that this was to dissuade Easter purchases. I thought this was nice, you could wait a week for replenishing your flock in most instances. They aren't doing that this year, but they also probably aren't a big part of the problem since it is very expensive to mail 2 ducklings (I doubt most people buying Easter ducks purchase 10) and internet/mail order isn't as impulsive as cute little ducklings / goslings at the feed stores. Heck, I know we will go there next month and look at all the 'lings and want to take them home when we have a whole yard full. (We will NOT! - maybe goslings next year or the year after. When we are fully set up for them.)

Maybe we can just train the sales staff at the feed stores: "Thank you for your purchase. Please enjoy your cute fluffy waterfowl. If I find it swimming in the pond I will hunt you down and give you something for your eye."

 

[sourland]

I would guess that you are correct in your guess that he is a human imprinted goose - very likely raised by someone with the build or general appearance of your wife. The big question is how did he end up abandoned?

 

[Tevyes Dad]

I would guess that you are correct in your guess that he is a human imprinted goose - very likely raised by someone with the build or general appearance of your wife. The big question is how did he end up abandoned?

Unfortunately, that usually isn't much of a question. Same as the other geese/ducks that aren't wild that are at the pond... Someone thinks the goslings/ducklings are cute in the feed store and buys them for their kids, their significant other or themselves and doesn't realize the level of commitment it takes and after a couple of months when they go from fluff balls to poop machines, they decide they would be "better off" at the local pond. I would think that most responsible owners who had extenuating circumstances would re-home their birds rather than toss them in a pond so the above probably applies most of them time.

 

[sourland]

There's a small pond by the local Home Depot. A large flock of Canada geese uses it as a 'roosting' place. Several years ago someone dumped an Embden gander there. He was eventually able (once he lost weight) to fly over the fence into a neighboring field where the Canada's would go to graze. Every 2 or 3 days I would take him some corn as a supplement. Eventually he was hit and killed by a car. I would guess that such dumped birds have a limited life span.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Unfortunately you are correct. When we go to the pond, we make very obvious our bag of All-flock, and if anyone shows some interest, we will try to educate people, but unfortunately most of the people who go to public ponds will feed the birds bread, crackers and potato chips. For the birds who can fly, this is an unhealthy addition to their foraged diet, but for the birds that can't, this is most of their diet. If a predator doesn't get them, their diet will. If that Embden was that light, he probably wasn't very strong so he probably couldn't fly too far. Poor guy. I am glad you at least brought him some reasonable food.

 

[cogoose]

If I lived there, I would take him. :/
Geese are just awesome and need love if they were domestic at one time.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

If I lived there, I would take him. :/
Geese are just awesome and need love if they were domestic at one time.

Unfortunately, he is behind a 6' fence and this is posted no trespassing, no harming or harassing the waterfowl. So "taking" him isn't really an option. It may be possible to adopt the goose, but we would have to quarantine him alone for the safety of our ducks while he had a competent veterinary exam. Our vet is somewhat versed in poultry, but still has to look up quite a bit. I would trust them to find and prescribe an antibiotic for a specific known problem, but not necessarily be able to clear a goose as safe to intermingle with our duck family and our first priority is the ducks we already have.

 

[The goose girl]

Oh, that poor, lonely gander. I'm sure you're right about him being a dumped, human imprinted goose. I guess your wife must have reminded him of someone he knew.

I've had my goose since the day she hatched and she thinks of humans as her flock. She's usually a bit wary of people she doesn't know, but sometimes she takes an instant liking to a complete stranger. It actually happened yesterday. I was visiting a friend and I'd brought the goose - she loves company. We'd been there for a good hour when my friend's son arrived, and within a couple of minutes the goose appeared glued to his side. She's never seen him before, but I couldn't lure her away from him - I actually had to pick her up and carry her out when we left. He didn't really pay attention to her, so I'm thinking his calm manner and perhaps his voice must have triggered the response in her. It was remarkable.