Geese Go Toe To Toe

                             Photo by BRADLEY J. RAYFORD / Forum

By JAMES DOCKETT 
Forum Guest Writer

     Sports have been around since the beginning of man. The sports that warrant the most viewership are usually the ones that require the players to inflict as much pain on each other as possible because carnage is what human beings love to see. Humans have usually been thought to be the only animals on earth that enjoy being spectators of sports, but this theory has recently been laid to rest by our very own geese here on campus.
     It was a muggy Wednesday morning around 11 a.m. The sky was grey and sunless, the air was thick and cool. As I strolled past the rainbow colored steel structure outside of the IS building, squawking resounded in the distance. My gut told me to go the other way, but my curiosity told me to press on. I encroached on the area in which the loud squawking was being emitted. As I turned the corner I was in shock at what lay before me. Two geese were pecking and squawking at one another, both trying to show their dominance. But that wasn’t all, they also had an audience. A group of five other geese were standing around them as they fought. These geese were squawking and coiling their necks in manner that looked like cheering, or perhaps instigation.
     These geese were as much a part of the fight as the two going at it. After what seemed like a life time of pecking, one goose succumbed to the pain, and the other came out victorious. He walked with bravado after having asserted his dominance over the other goose. The loser walked in shame with ruffled feathers, some torn out, squawking the squawk of a defeated goose. The audience they once entertained now followed the victor goose to their new resting place down the outdoor steps to the engineering building. The defeated goose with his ruffled feathers went his own way, still angry about the fight. His manhood was in shambles, but he would live to fight another day.
     These geese showed us that they are more like us than we know. Territorial when we feel like our space is being invaded, hostile toward one another when we feel disrespected and apparently we both enjoy scuffles every once in a while. Who knows maybe one day we will be seeing geese fights on Pay-Per-View.

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