Question about goose behavior?

[AnserMater]

Just out of curiosity,

If a goose was raised with a human family, solely, would the goose be able to adapt to a new human family? For example: A goose becomes an adult, and has two human flock members. The humans had to give the goose away to another human family. Would the goose mourn the loss of its family? Or would the goose thrive and accept the new family as its flock.

Also, has this been observed with wild geese? If a goose was separated from it's goose flock suddenly, would it be taken in by another flock or die of loneliness?

 

[mama24]

Well, I just took in a goose that was obviously raised as a pet. She is VERY friendly and came to me b/c she had apparently been dumped at a park and was following people around. So I would say, yes, they would do well with another human family. I picked her up at the ark today and she is doing very well so far. I think she's going to do well here. Poor thing. I can't believe someone would raise and animal like a pet and then just dump it at a park. I look at CL ads all the time and never saw a goose listed, nor were there fliers at any of the feed stores, so they definitely didn't do much to find her a home!

 

[AnserMater]

That's so sad and irresponsible of that person. I think what happens is that people purchase babys and don't expect them to grow up and eat a bunch of food, and require great amounts of love and attention. Then they assume that they can just let the geese go at a pond and it will think it's a goose when it was raised by people.

That's a great story. I wish you luck. I guess as long as the goose finds itself in a loving home with enough companionship, it will do well with anyone. If anyone else has any other stories I would be happy to hear them!

 

[The goose girl]

My goose is imprinted on humans and often accepts new people after a while. If people know how to behave around a goose, she'll let them pet her after sometimes just 15 minutes.

In 2010, I took her to my parents' place for Christmas. The first day or two she followed me around the house, but after that she tended to stay with the largest group of people. She noticed when I left the room, but she just stayed put if the others were there.

So I'm positive that a human imprinted goose will be able to bond with a new family. Ideally, one should let the goose get to know its new family while the old family is still present.