Adult goose killing baby

[makeway4goslings]

Today I saw a male goose kill a baby that was swimming around him. Basically, he drowned the baby.

It was so disturbing to see, and I have to wonder if this happens all the time?

 

[nuthatched]

Wild geese? Domestic geese? Birds are highly territorial.

 

[Jenbirdee]

same question. was this wild geese at a lake or something?

 

[makeway4goslings]

Wild geese! Just two adults with their baby. Most of the babies escaped, but one was drowned by the parent!

Question is: does this happen a lot?!

 

[Berd Man]

Infanticide is not uncommon in nature. I had wondered this same thing after seeing a domestic Toulouse gander of mine drown his own offspring. He did it his first season and when he repeated on his second I knew that some geese will just do this. I’ve had an handful of other ganders that never exhibited this behavior.

I never really arrived at any definite conclusions as to “why?” So I would love to know if someone else does.

Maybe they kill one that’s sick / straggling, that would be a hindrance to the gaggle. They may kill other goslings to protect resources for their own goslings or themselves.