ask two more canada goose questions...

[nathanielfirst]

1. Is anything meant by stepping on top of my foot/shoes a little bit while I feed a male (not in a pair) -

2. Is it possible for a female canada goose to have more dominance in the pair than a male? I know a fairly sedate male that doesn't fight a lot, not too loud, just likes to hang out. His female mate is more nervous, on guard, and aggressive towards other geese esp females. When he backs away from a fight with a larger male, she seizes the opportunity to attack the larger male's mate while distracted and chase her into a lake... So sometimes her mate bites her shoulder to sort of subordinate her, she never bites him back. Can she be the leader of a pair or is that impossible?

thanks

 

[nathanielfirst]

also, related to question 2, this same nervous female canada goose will turn around and walk a short distance away from me when I feed her and her mate, looking a bit scared, fan her tail out like a japanese fan as she is retreating, then walk back to me the next minute. I think she has classified me as a dominant goose or male goose or something, and suspect this tail fanning is some kind of female response or subordination thing. She just started doing it recently. I have never done anything to scare or hurt her, she is just more reluctant to be fed and usually hides behind her mate a bit. I wonder what tail fanning in a female can mean