Snow Goose

Snow Goose
Richmond Marina, Richmond, California, USA
January 2019
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family
§A String of Geese§

~true bird fact~ A canny, tough goose to be reckoned with. Well known for their long migratory flights to and from the arctic, these geese are also no joke on foot, where they can outrun most of their predators. Even the baby geese might walk 50 miles in a day to find better nesting ground. And those babies? Largely safe, because the geese prefer to nest near Snowy Owls and Rough-legged Hawks, which prey on their main predators, Arctic Foxes.

Cross this goose at your own peril
A well developed sense of honor
Hardened by battle, prepared for the long winter to come



How Endangered Are They? Not endangered at all, I'm happy to say. But they were, at one point, quite endangered. At one point in the 1900's there were only 2000 birds or so left alive, mostly due to hunting. However strong conservation laws were enacted, and they recovered. Maybe a little too well.
Now there are 5 million of these bad boys, and their population is growing by 5 percent a year. There's so many of them that they're actually sort of damaging the habitat of other animals now in the tundra. New, less restrictive hunting laws have done little to slow their growth, probably because a lot of land that used to be forest is now goose-friendly farmland. Oopsa doopsa, we messed up again, but good for the Snow Goose I guess. I welcome out new Goose overlords.