When do imprinted geese lose the need to stick with their 'parents'? (wild-ish greylag geese; also a general LONG update!))

[Bubblesduck]

TLDR: Biggest question is in bold!

So some background information: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-gosling-mama.1382898/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rst-fall-of-their-hatch.1395932/post-23000615

I'll copy some info from the comment above:

We've got two greylag goslings (now nearing 3 months old) that we found in our village without parents or grownups. At first we thought they might have been someone's pets who got lost, because they literally ran over to us and into our hands when we found them - they seemed way too tame to be wild, and domestic goslings and greylag goslings are very similar.

Looking back, they probably were so young that they imprinted on us (basically as their only chance for rescue) the minute they saw us. Either way, no one came to claim their lost pets and they've grown up to truly be greylag geese, not a domestic goose type.

So anyway, they've definitely imprinted on us during that time. We've been keeping them first in the house, then in the shed, and during the day in the garden. Almost every day we take them to the river wetlands.

We've noticed that they're still very attached to us. Only later we learned that greylag goslings stay with their parents until spring the year after, when the parents get a new nest - and if the previous year's goslings aren't mated, they'll regularly stay with the family group another year. Which is great for them, but not so much for us. Because we live in the middle of our village, have a small garden, and generally speaking this is just not a great place for geese to be. However they're completely uninterested in leaving the garden unless it's with us.

Some more info: Before we were sure of their breed and thought they were domestic, we'd mostly thought we'd move them to my in-laws' farm when they'd grown up. They've had geese before; they have fields where they can keep the geese, so that's fine. They've also got 'semi-wild' fields a bit further off their property with some big ponds, where they could technically also live a lovely life.

However when we realised they were actual wild-born greylag geese, or even since before that time, we've been taking them to the riverside and the wetlands to let them graze there, swim in the river, and since last month for flying practice. (Seeing their progress has been amazing, by the way ). There's also plenty of greylag geese living in the wetlands/at the river, so we'd kind of hoped they'd some day just wander off and move in with other young greylag geese.

However, since finding these babies we've obviously read a lot and by now we've learned what I said up there: that greylag goslings stay with their parents for a full year. When we got them, we figured that by the time they could fly, they'd be ready to live on their own. But interestingly enough they've been getting more independent up until they started learning how to fly - just before they started being able to take off they got very 'teenager-like' in that they didn't want to come home with us from the river anymore etc, which we then didn't allow because they couldn't fly yet and they might be killed by a fox or cat. But we expected them to want to stay there for good when they could fly. However since they've learned to fly they actually seem more focused on us again? They mostly follow us around, and when they do lag behind when we walk with the dog, they'll eventually fly up and look for us from the air.

So now we have a few options for their future, but none of them seem ideal for them because we aren't there. They can be farm animals, or semi-wild animals with a human checking in regularly, or completely wild animals. But none of those options seem to interest them - they just want to stay in our tiny garden

So what we're wondering is basically: from which moment in their lives is it not completely traumatic anymore for goslings to 'lose their parents'? They are fine staying in the garden by themselves during the day (though they do call for us after a couple of hours - that's half for us, and half for feed, as far as I can decipher; and they'll go up to the backdoor (even when we're not home, they'll wait for us there, and if we put the fence up they'll fly over the fence to still wait at the backdoor)).

When we're out in the floodfields and they're too far away, they'll call for us and if we take too long in finding them (or don't bother), they'll fly up and fly to us. They've also done that at my inlaws' farm - flown out of the field to find us, and in that case they did land on the neighbour's property. We could curtail their wings, but I'm pretty averse to that seeing that they're wild geese who I think should fly. (Also they're still learning and I don't want to interfere with their learning process).

We do have the option to either stay over at my in-laws' for a week or two to get them used to that property (if necessary). We can also try easing them into the riverside/wetlands even more - leaving them alone for 5, 10, 20 minutes, then an hour, then half a day, etc. But we're not sure what is wisest.

Oh last thing I might need to add: They are showing increasing interest in the wild greylag geese in the wetlands. They've walked through a big group of geese before (after flying up to them), without much interaction from either side. Today they've actually flown up to a smaller family group and initiated contact. Unfortunately the adults in that group chased them off (about 2 meters, stretched neck), but our geese just sort of kept quite close to the other group. We were about 50 meters away. Eventually I walked a bit closer and the other geese flew up - ours joined them for a round through the air, but whereas the other geese landed together in the river, our two flew back to us (human parents) on the land. But it did lead me to believe they'll at least stick close to wild geese if we would leave them completely alone in the wild. (Also: since we raised them, they're huge, already as big as adult greylag geese though much slimmer. So I'm not really afraid that they wouldn't be able to stand up for themselves in goose pecking order physically. But they really didn't fight back or anything).

I realise that most people here have tame geese, so hopefully a few of you can at least answer me from which point on you could let your imprinted geese alone in the field for a whole day (or who knows a whole week - we'd also love to go on a holiday....) without them panicking and just shouting for you a lot.

(And who knows, someone who knows wild geese might just happen to wander by this topic, too...!)

(And some pictures to show them off, because I'm still a very proud gosling mama).

One day they’ll just stay in the lake and not come home at night…

Or they will live thier lives outside in the wild, especially if you are near a body of water and other geese, but will continue to come by and visit. Geese are different than say, Mallards. You can hand raise a Mallard and it might stay, or it might fly away and join wild flock…50/50…

But geese are far more sophisticated and in their mind, you are part of their flock, even if they join with others….