If you have ever walked on SUNY Oswego’s campus, you have probably crossed paths with a Canada goose. And yes, it is ‘Canada goose.’

“It’s very common to hear people say Canadian geese, but that’s technically incorrect,” said Daniel Baldassarre, who holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior and is an assistant professor in the biological sciences department at SUNY Oswego. They’re a nuisance, [Canada geese] love hanging out on college campuses.”

Canada geese “love being in urban areas alongside humans” because people often cut down trees and have open spaces like quads or sports fields, Baldassarre said. These large areas of grass are not ideal for most other wildlife but are for Canada geese because they are herbivores and predominantly eat grasses.

Large open spaces can also be useful to Canada geese because it allows for “a wide, unobstructed view of any approaching predators” according to allaboutbirds.org.

“They just love to be out in ope grass and just munching-munching,” Baldassarre said. “That’s why they’re attracted to places like college campuses that have these big open lawns. That’s just like a breakfast buffet for geese.”

Baldassarre said that although we do see a lot of Canada geese on campus, there are not as many as there could be. 

“Oswego’s kinda lucky that we don’t have more than we do [because] they really can become a pain in the butt,” Baldassarre said. “They can be aggressive, and they’re big, and they occur in pretty large numbers, and they poop all over the place. Certain places like golf courses and other college campuses, for example, sometimes they just get blanketed with geese. You’ll just see massive, massive flocks.” 

There are many preventative measures people and places use to try to keep the Canada geese away, according to Baldassarre. Speakers that project loud noises and frightening sounds, strobe lights and sprinklers, sometimes equipped with motion sensors, are used to keep Canada geese away. But these methods typically only work for a little while. Once the geese realize the sounds, lights and sprinklers are not a threat, they come back and deal with them.

“[Canada geese are] pretty persistent. It’s very difficult to keep them away from a particular area,” Baldassarre said. “It’s really difficult to try and manage them.”

There are also dogs that people raise and train specifically to scare off geese, according to Baldassarre.

“The only things that really work are very active, persistent measures like hiring a dog, for example, and having the dog come out all the time and just constantly chasing geese away.”

In extreme cases, another measure to deal with the Canada geese is to shoot them, Baldassarre said. This most commonly happens at airports, and they get legal permission to shoot the birds.

Birds and planes can be very dangerous to one another. The famous “Miracle on the Hudson” plane crash in 2009 was caused after flight 1549, captained by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, collided with a group of Canada geese, according to fieldmuseum.org and the Carolinas Aviation Museum.

In terms of the Canada geese population, “It’s very easy for [it] to get out of control,” Baldassarre said. “It’s become very difficult to manage the populations.”

There are fluctuations in their populations, and sometimes the amount is smaller, Baldassarre said. Wildlife managers pay close attention to their population and try to keep it under control with hunting and other regulations. But for the most part, there is an overpopulation of Canada geese.  

Conservation efforts such as hunting limitations, protecting wetlands, and limiting pesticides have helped all bird populations rebound, including Canada geese, Baldassarre said. But there has been a bit of an overcorrection; there were very few Canada geese, and now there are too many. 

As for Canada geese in Oswego, some stay all year round, including through the winter, Baldassarre said. Migration and flying long distances can be dangerous for birds, so some go south, while others choose to “tough it out” and brave the cold and snowy Oswego winters.

“A lot of birds have evolved to deal with it,” Baldassarre said.

Canada geese that live in the arctic, for example, migrate south because the winter is too harsh, but some can manage the less harsh Oswego winter, although some do die over the winter months.

On campus, Baldassarre said, “The best thing to do is just to ignore them and let them do their thing.”

“[Canada geese] are just examples of [a] species that have really figured out how to coexist with humans,” Baldassarre said. “They also are just not afraid of humans. Maybe partly because of their large body size and [that] they’re just very aggressive birds. They just don’t have much of a fear of humans.”

Baldassarre said to give Canada geese even more space if they have goslings with them, as they will be aggressive to protect them.

“Give them a wide berth and just let them go by,” Baldassarre said. “Because they will fly at you, they’ll jump at you, they’ll peck at you, they’re really not scared.”

As hunting and other methods of controlling the birds are not prohibited on SUNY Oswego’s campus, Baldassarre said the best thing to do is just treat them like neighbors.

“You gotta sorta learn to peacefully coexist with them,” Baldassarre said. “Learn to share the campus with the geese.”

Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian