This text is taken from the Courrier de la Planète. Click here to subscribe.
What to do with the geese that are increasingly squatting in the green spaces of our cities? The question is tricky.
First of all, it should be noted that these large birds of the goose family are Canada geese, not “bustards”. This name is the one given to them by the first explorers, including Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, for whom this bird vaguely resembled the European bustard, a large terrestrial bird.
Four centuries later, even if their passage still beats with the rhythm of the seasons, some citizens, including our reader Céline Dutrisac, consider the geese to be somewhat invasive and would like hunting to help better control their population.
But the thing is not so simple. Because the famous Canada goose is a migratory bird, and therefore protected since 1916 by the Convention concerning migratory birds in Canada and the United States. The control of these waterfowl by hunting or any other means therefore depends on the goodwill of the federal government.
What goose?
And to complicate it all, there are Canada geese… and Canada geese.
Quebec is home to two subspecies of this bird. First, the migratory goose, called Branta canadensis interior, from the United States, which migrates to Nunavik in the spring and returns to the South in the fall. On her way, she makes a stop in Quebec. These migratory populations are decreasing and are the subject of several protection measures, explains Jean-François Giroux, associate professor in the Department of Biology at UQAM.
The goose that attracts jokes is rather the goose of temperate regions. It is a different subspecies, Branta canadensis maxima, a little larger. It is native to the United States, but has become acclimatized to our more northern latitudes and now proliferates near water bodies in cities in southern Quebec. Very comfortable in our regions, she now only returns to the United States a few months a year to escape the frost, like our “ snowbirds “.
However, in several municipalities, these birds with their long black necks are now settling in parks, on golf courses or on beaches. They delight in the grass of lawns and soil the paths, the quays and the banks with their generous faeces (they eject nearly a kilogram of it per day). “When two or three couples occupy land on the edge of the water, people find it appealing. But when there are dozens of them and their faeces stain the ground, they find it less funny, ”notes Professor Giroux.
The goose population in temperate regions is “growing exponentially,” he continues. “In 1990, there were two nests on the island of Varennes; there were 200 to 300 nests in the same place in 2020. They have become accustomed to humans and live very well in urban and peri-urban environments”, notes the man who has studied them for more than 30 years.
Should the proliferation of these birds be controlled?
The problem is that it is difficult to distinguish the two subspecies of geese that live side by side during seasonal migrations. “You can’t tell them apart by eye, unless you measure them. So there is a risk that hunters will kill the struggling subspecies,” says Giroux.
Aim for the black, kill the white? To protect migrating Canada geese, “local” Canada Canada geese are hunted from the beginning to the end of September, depending on the zones where this activity is possible. The Canadian Wildlife Service allows a quota of 10 birds per day per hunter. At the end of September, this quota drops to three to protect the migratory goose returning from Nunavik. “It is then likely to mingle with the resident geese,” explains environmental technician Francis Saint-Pierre.
“The problem is that the local geese, in large numbers on the ground, act as decoys and attract the subspecies arriving from the north which flies over the territory in the fall,” adds Mr. Giroux.
Urban squatters
And where hunting is prohibited, the problem remains, explains Francis Saint-Pierre. The females of these waterfowl are so protective when incubating their eggs that they have few predators except coyotes and red foxes. Even skunks and raccoons dare not confront these belligerent mothers, he says.
The cities of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Repentigny and Longueuil have been dealing for several years with complaints from citizens related to the presence of these plump birds. With the authorization of the Canadian Wildlife Service, some have even sterilized the broods with mineral oil.
Remember that the problems caused by urban geese stem above all from their forced cohabitation with humans. “Like gulls, it’s a problem created especially by those who feed them and create shorelines with grass. We offer them the ideal ground for feeding and nesting,” says Saint-Pierre.
“It’s a pity that the Canada goose, which has become a Canadian symbol, a sign of the passage of the seasons here, is now perceived as a nuisance,” laments Jean-François Giroux. We’ll have to get used to it, because in 20 or 30 years, with climate change, it will probably stay here all year round! »