An animal with the power to ruin any picnic.
A prodigious pooper that has taken over the parks of North America.
A bird with a serrated tongue that will chase you out of your own garden
and put your rake in the lake.
This is one of the most feared animals by city slickers,
this is the goose.
Hi I'm Danielle Dufault and you're watching Animalogic.
Goose is an umbrella term for birds from three separate genera,
from the same family as swans and ducks and there's at least 16 different species.
The smallest genus consists of the white geese there are only three species, all North American,
and they include the beautiful swan goose.
These cranky beauts spend their summers in the Arctic and migrate south during the winter.
They travel in huge gaggles of up to a million birds.
Traversing up to 4,000 kilometres, making them one of the most amazing migration events on earth.
Then there are the grey geese, which are mostly found in Northern Europe and in Asia.
They're so similar to white geese that some scientists argue that
white geese should be part of this genus.
They all have orange legs and beaks and grayish brown feathers.
The goose you're more likely to have eaten is the Greylag goose.
They were one of the first animals to be domesticated
and are considered a Christmas delicacy in Northern Europe.
Finally, we have the black geese.
A genus, which includes the infamously aggressive Canada goose.
Black geese are generally brown or black and have black legs and beaks.
They're mostly found in North America, with two exceptions.
The Hawaiian Nene and the Siberian red-breasted goose.
If you've ever been attacked by a goose in North America, it was probably a Canada goose.
For Canada geese, peace was never an option.
Their beaks and tongues are serrated with papillae that help them cut
plant matter and filter mud when they drink from puddles.
The result is one of the most terrifying beaks of all birds.
They might not be able to do much damage to a grown person,
but you don't want to put your fingers on the business end of that mouth.
Canada geese are extremely protective animals that have adapted very well to urban habitats.
Cities provide lots of food and protection from predators.
They have no fear of people and are comfortable raising their goslings in our parks.
They were once protected along with other migratory species, but over the past 50 years,
their numbers have exploded and there are now over seven million Canada geese in North America.
The main issue is that human activity has changed their migration patterns.
Up until the urbanization of North America, Canada
geese would breed in the Arctic in the summer and travel south for the winter.
As humans built better parks and offered protection from foxes,
wolves and other predators, they started to stay put year-round.
And being here year-round means that they litter our parks with poo, lots and lots of poo.
Every goose and gander produces up to a kilogram of feces every day.
All this poo contaminates waterways
and has also caused an increase of pathogens in parks and lakes.
So if you go to the beach, just make sure that there aren't a lot of droppings around.
One of the reasons they poo so much is because they eat our leftovers.
They have been observed breaking into dumpsters and trashcans,
but some people feed them to get on their good side.
In the short term, this is great for geese because they get a lot of yummy food.
But in the long term, they end up eating too many carbs and proteins,
which can make them sick and cause deformities.
The most common of these ailments is angel wing,
in which some of the wing bones don't form properly.
This causes their primary feathers to point outwards and limits their ability to fly.
In severe cases, it causes death as geese get rejected by their family
or become easy prey for predators.
Being part of a family and being so protective of it
are some of the reasons that geese are so successful.
Some species, like the Greylight goose, mate for life.
While others, like the Canada goose, stay together for a whole breeding cycle.
Having a long-term partner increases the chances of their goslings' survival.
It has also been noted that the single geese get more stressed out than the paired birds,
particularly during confrontations.
But it's not all a romantic fairy tale.
Paired geese are known to occasionally mate with other geese if the opportunity presents itself.
Hey, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
A relatively high number of goose pairs involved two members of the same sex.
In Greylag geese, up to 20% of couples two ganders.
They also reportedly have stronger connections than the other pairs as they perform more
displays for each other and they don't have to worry about taking care of goslings.
When it's time to migrate, they most commonly fly in "V" formations.
The formation saves them energy by reducing wind resistance.
The goose in the front leads the skying but also gets a lot more tired.
When its shift is over, it falls back and another goose takes over the lead spot.
Great teamwork, you lovable jerks.
So what should I talk about next?
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Thanks for watching and see ya!