Geese Aren’t Afraid of Cars
Anyone living in areas where geese reside or migrate knows that geese don’t seem to be afraid of cars. While driving in a car geese may completely ignore the vehicle, even when going at high speed towards the birds. This often happens in parking lots, residential neighborhoods, city streets, and park drives. Because geese don’t seem to have any fear when it comes to moving vehicles it can easily create some unique situations. These birds may completely ignore your vehicle and carry on with their day hunting for food, walking through a park, or just casually strolling down the road. Geese don’t have a high intelligence, which makes getting them to move out of the way even more difficult. People may struggle to know what to do in situations because most birds immediately flee when a car gets close. There isn’t much someone can do to avoid this from occurring, but with a few tips and tricks you may be able to coerce these birds to move along and free up your path.
Why Geese Are Not Afraid
Geese & Spacial Awareness
Geese are not usually considered a contender for the smartest of birds. They often misinterpret interactions, can be aggressive when it’s unnecessary, and struggle to fully adapt to the urban environments they often live in. These wildlife birds lack crucial spatial awareness and generally aren’t very intelligent, so they may completely miss what is happening around them. Because of this geese don’t typically react to vehicles moving at higher speeds. Since the vehicles are moving quickly the birds usually don’t have time to process the situation and react appropriately. Geese are much more likely to react to a vehicle that is moving slowly as they will have time to see the vehicle and better understand they may be in danger. A goose standing in the road likely will not move unless it is gently herded away. While a large moving vehicle should cause a goose to become scared, their lack of awareness is the main contributing factor for their nonchalant behavior. When driving around geese, plan for them to not react how you would expect most birds to in a situation involving a moving car.
Park Environments & City Streets: Desensitized to Urban Areas
Goose sometimes appear to be slightly domesticated birds. They may be a resident of a local park, eat food from park patrons, and spend a lot of time in urban settings near traffic and city bustle. It is important to remember that these animals are still a part of the wildlife world and aren’t tame. Canada geese struggle to understand fully urban environments. Some geese have become very desensitized to more populated environments including sounds, vehicles, and more. Because of this geese don’t fully understand the danger they’re in when around roads and moving cars. If a goose is in the middle of a road a driver shouldnt drive at them aggressively because their desensitization will likely not create the outcome you’re hoping for. While geese are sometimes a large nuisance, these animals are federally protected and shouldn’t be physically aggressed by humans.
Moving Your Car Slowly
Because of factors like urban desensitization and a lack of awareness geese don’t respond well to cars driving quickly at them. In many instances people have found that slowing down, but not stopping will yield better results. It has been observed that if a driver slows their vehicle down, and continues to move slowly towards the canada geese they have time to understand the situation and adapt for safety. A goose will slowly move out of the way as a way to protect themselves clearing the path so you can continue driving. In these situations it is always best to treat moving your car towards them as a firm request rather than a demand. These animals will respond better and oftentimes in these situations will simply move out of the way. It is when drivers believe that aggressively scaring a goose will work in their favor that it creates a bigger problem.
Canada Geese & Federal Protection
No matter where you’re at, if there are geese they are likely to end up in a road or street. Canada geese naturally are drawn to wider open spaces, often nesting near open fields by bodies of water. They do this as a form of self preservation since they’re able to see predators more easily and have a better chance of escaping. It is important to note that in the United States canada geese do have federal protection. They are legally protected from harm under any normal circumstance via the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Anyone in the United States who doesn’t have any form of written permission cannot destroy geese nests, eggs, or harm any geese. We always advocate for the protection of wildlife. Never hit a goose with your vehicle, or it could result in a misdemeanor charge and a hefty fine. If a goose is in the road, slow your vehicle down and without making contact gently herd the goose away from your car until you can pass. Respect the geese’s boundaries instead of being aggressive towards them.
Don’t Get Out of Cars
When encountering geese in the road don’t think you can simply get them to move by chasing them away. Getting out of your vehicle can be dangerous with these aggressive herbivores. If geese feel threatened at all instead of running from you they may turn towards you. Geese attacks can be more brutal than most would think; these birds charge at their target, flapping their wings aggressively and can punch with their hard beaks. Because geese struggle to adapt to urban environments it only makes sense for people to learn how to best handle these conflicts. Stay in your car and slowly coax the birds away.
Training Canada Geese
When drivers encounter geese in the road they sometimes feel powerless to find a solution. Drivers will then approach the birds and come to a complete stop, hoping the birds will continue on and move off the road themselves. This pattern may be training birds to believe that they have the “right-of-way” when it comes to conflicts with vehicles. This is bad for two reasons, one being that the birds will never feel any sense of urgency to move out of traffic, and two being that there is no solution for the driver who is simply stuck waiting for the birds to move along. Instead of stopping your vehicle, slow to a very low speed and slowly approach the birds. This will likely make them uncomfortable and cause them to move out of the way. We want the birds to be afraid of vehicles and train them to move away from them instead of standing their ground. It is important to reiterate that a driver should under no circumstances make physical contact with a geese, with their vehicle or in any other way.
Geese Are Aggressive
It is important to remember that geese can be a fairly aggressive bird. Often people see geese as beautiful birds and relate them to other waterfowl like swans, however it's important to keep your distance from geese as they may attack. This is especially true around nesting season. Geese may nest in public areas like parks or larger private campuses and may be near people every day. They become much more aggressive during nesting season, especially when people get close to their nests. Maintain distance from a geese, especially if it is making noises or moving erratically, both of which are signs of aggression.
Goose Masters’ Humane Geese Control
Goose Masters specializes in geese control. We work with clients of all sizes and provide our services for golf courses, hospitals, universities, residential neighborhoods, public parks, and more. We utilize professional geese control techniques that bring no physical harm to the birds and work to train them to stay away from a property or area. Geese often migrate to the same spots year after year, so just because their nesting season ends or the seasons shift doesn’t mean they won’t return. Call to speak to one of our experts about how our services can help you with your geese infestation.
Border Collie “Goose Dogs”
We use a unique technique to trick the birds into feeling they are being stalked by a predator, which causes them to flee the premises. By utilizing professionally trained border collies, we are able to fabricate a negative association for the geese on your property. Geese have many predators and greatly value safety where they live, and because of this will quickly relocate in order to feel safe again. Depending on the severity of the geese infestation we can visit a property multiple times a week in order to herd them away. Our techniques are the most trusted techniques, and we avoid utilizing any gimmicks that tend to just be a waste of time and money. Goose Masters specializes in the control of geese and believes our strategy to be the most humane and effective.
Contact Goose Masters for More Info
Goose Masters helps reduce geese population across many properties and businesses and believe that our methods work better than all other methods. Our team provides humane services to help both the property owners and managers as well as the birds. For information about our services and how we can help with your goose troubles, reach out to us today.
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