Return of the giant Canada goose

While environmental news is full of stories about species “on the brink of extinction,” we occasionally hear a success story. The recovery of the giant Canada goose is one such story (Branta canadensis maxima). Most people are familiar with the Canada goose (Branta canadensis) with its black neck and head and white cheek markings, but you may have noticed that the geese up here seem a little bigger than those you might have seen in southern Wisconsin or Iowa. It isn’t your imagination. On lakes and wetlands in Cook, Virginia and Embarrass we see members of the “giant Canada goose” subspecies. Giant Canada geese weight 12 pounds or more, 50 percent more than the more moderate, and more common “interior race” of Canada geese who top out at about eight pounds. It is these smaller geese that we see migrating from Hudson Bay in Canada to Illinois in the spring and fall.

Giant Canada geese were thought to be all but extinct in the early 1960’s, until researchers discovered a population in Rochester, Minn. The Minnesota DNR quickly moved to “recover” this almost lost population and they met with widespread success. From that population came the giant subspecies members that now roam parks and golf courses in the Twin Cities. As Twin Cities populations grew “too large,” the Department of Natural Resources relocated some of those big geese in greater Minnesota. Some of those birds ended up here in the northland. Of course success comes with its own challenges. In some cases, Canada geese congregate on lawns and urban lakes, hissing at passersby and leaving behind wet goose droppings.

The geese that we see up here are from one of two groups: breeders and “molt migrants.” The breeders are nesting here in the northland. The “molt migrants” fly from the metro area to the relatively unpopulated northland to molt (drop) their old feathers and grow new ones. During the molt, geese are flightless for a time. According to DNR Assistant Area Wildlife Manager Walt Gessler, the DNR takes advantage of this molt to “herd” northland geese and band them for research.

There are many reasons that these geese have recovered so well. Gessler terms them “flying cows.” They love to graze on the manicured lawns we have created in parks, golf courses and lakefront yards. The more humans have created and tended these lawns, the more Canada geese take advantage of this easy food source. One easy way to discourage geese from lounging on your lakeside lawn is to let the land near the water “stay wild” with tall-growing grasses and forbes as a deterrent to geese.

“We suggest that people don’t mow the lawn right down to the water’s edge,” said Gessler. “It is better for the lake and it discourages the geese.”

Canada geese are also “good parents” in that they protect their young and a higher percentage of chicks grow to adulthood under the watchful eyes of the parents. In addition, geese are tolerant of people. They are quite comfortable in city parks, urban ponds or on golf courses. This means that the geese can feed and rest in an area with few large natural predators to bother them.

According to Gessler, if geese are becoming pests on your property, call your local DNR office for advice on legal ways of dealing with pest geese. If they aren’t being pests, be sure to enjoy this large bird that almost disappeared from the land.