Where did all these geese come from?
The goose that conquered America
The Canada goose is a nuisance. This is how it all started.
Phil Edwards was a senior producer for the Vox video team.
The video above explores the poop-filled history of the Canada goose — and the way people transformed it from migratory wonder to year-round nuisance.
If you’ve played on a soccer field or strolled past a golf course in the United States, you’ve doubtless seen gaggles of Canada geese terrorizing those public spaces. These geese were actually put here by state agencies in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s as part of public programs to create Canada goose populations after nearly hunting the bird to extinction. Because these birds are all protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it proves surprisingly difficult to get the geese to leave.
There are some methods of geese removal, like egg oiling, or addling, that stop new geese from hatching. It’s a lot of effort, but it works. Still, these Canada geese illustrate some of the unintended consequences that happened when people tried to foster flocks in the past half-century.
Check out the above video to learn more.
You can find this video and all of Vox’s Almanac series on YouTube. And if you’re interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.
Further reading:
“Home grown honkers” was a definitive guide to goose raising. You can find information about it online, and some used copies are available.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s bird guide is an invaluable resource to learn the basics about all birds, including the Canada goose.
Many state agencies have written histories of their geese programs, but this federal impact statement from 2002 is the best option for an overall picture.
Harold Hanson’s book, The Giant Canada Goose, chronicles the rediscovery of a species once thought extinct (as well as some breeding advice).
These bird population studies give you a picture of changing bird populations over the past 50 years.
