When Good Geese Go Bad...

These pictures are not good, as I used the cell phone and took them through the window of the car, but it illustrates the problem. The other day I mentioned that many of the geese no longer migrate because of all the people feeding them. The geese are fine when they stay around the lake or the ponds, but they've taken to flying into neighborhoods & (literally) walking the streets. They have no fear of cars, so they just keep strolling along in the road, unconcerned that they could become road kill pretty easily. They've been known to follow people down the sidewalks (and terrorize children), thinking they'll get food, and of course they leave poop all over the place. It's not their fault; it's the fault of the people who feed them & disrupt their normal patterns without thinking of the consequences. I recently watched a documentary about an animal preserve that had become overcrowded, so the staff decided to remove  older elephants & relocate them to a new preserve. What happened was that without the guidance of the adult elephants to model behavior--especially the adult males--the juvenile male elephants became aggressive, attacking other wildlife and going after tourists. The group of aggressive young elephants actually killed 19 rhinos! Once again, it was because of man's interference, even though they meant well--made me think of the behavior change in the geese as well. So next time you see a goose, know they're not helpless and can feed themselves, and it's better if they do. :)