Canada Geese Love NYC Too Much

The Post continues its war on Canada geese—the type of bird suspected of downing Flight 1549—by explaining the geese population in the NYC-area is five times too big for human happiness. Apparently there are 20,000 birds in NYC and Long Island, but NY Department of Environmental Conservation specialist Bryan Swift says 4,000 geese would be the population "where people would say, 'These are a good thing,' and 'It's nice to have the geese around.'" And Cornell University bird expert Paul Curtis tells the paper, "The habitat can support them, but they exceeded the cultural carrying capacity, or people's tolerance for them, long ago." The DEC says hunting lowers the geese population (of course) and lawmakers have suggested control measures like "oiling unhatched eggs [to] prevent them from hatching" and "pouring gravel over fields [to] keep many from returning." Photo of geese in the Bronx: missapril1956 on Flickr

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By Jen Chung in News on January 31, 2009 11:58 AM

Comments [rss]

Spirit of 76

They can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Instead of just shooting them, round them up and take them to the foie gras farms. If they're going to be killed anyway, at least let them have some good final meals.

NannyState

Eww. Wild Canada Goose Foie Gras with traces of birth control medication from feeding in NY's riparian waters?

dr zippy

Would hunting and preparing the wild geese be cheaper than mass-produced beef, chicken etc.? I have my doubts.

Plus, wild geese don't actually taste all that good.

thefacts

Why not use them to feed the poor and hungry at soup kitchens!

ANGRYGOD11

Westchester tried feeding geese killed with shotguns to the homeless, but the buckshot in the meat made it toxic.

MaiaW

Yeah, well there are about a million too many humans in this city, too. Life happens!

freddynyc

I guess geese delicacy has never really caught on in these parts...

chickblao

right. what's the big deal leave them alone it's so arbitrary to decide how many of a species there should be.

mocanlagunas

4,000 geese would be the population "where people would say, 'These are a good thing,' and 'It's nice to have the geese around.'"

How do they come with these numbers?!? I'd bet the mayority of NYers haven't seen a goose in months...