Goose attacking a gosling

[User123]

Hi,
On our usual walk today me and my boyfriend saw a goose attacking what seemed to be their gosling. There was 12 gosling with 2 geese and they seemed to be all fine one minute and out of nowhere one of the geese started attacking (biting) the gosling. At first we assumed it maybe cleaning the gosling but as soon as we saw it throwing it around with its mouth, my boyfriend stepped in to stop it potentially causing anymore damage. Thankfully they left the gosling alone and wandered off, but unfortunately the gosling passed away.

I’m just wondering if this is normal for geese to do? I tried googling it but apparently geese are quite territorial of their babies and are quite loving which we’ve noticed before on our walks. We’re just a bit confused as it just seemed to have happened out of nowhere.

Thank you in advance

 

[tripletfeb]

I'm assuming these were wild Canadian geese? It could have attacked the gosling for any number of reasons. Maybe it was sick and not gonna make it, maybe it didn't belong in that flock of goslings so it was taken care of. It could have been a male goose and it was attacking a gosling that was not his. I wouldn't worry about it, sometimes nature can be pretty disturbing