Hello Campus Students and Staff:
My name is Dorene Olson, and my two Border Collies, Quill
and Anna, and my Scottish Deerhound, Gulliver, come slinking about your
campus this time of year, every year. We are a Canada Goose
Management team, and we work on your campus when your geese go broody and lay on
their nests. There is an early, a middle and a late nesting season, and
we work right on through from mid- March to roughly mid-June, when the
last brood is done.
You will probably have noticed orange snow fencing with
CAUTION - NESTING GEESE signs around campus. Florrisant Valley
Community College, under the guidance of John Ferlisi and the tireless efforts
of Steve, is very progressive in their handling of the geese. They
employ a tactic endorsed, by among others, the Humane Society of the United
States, Geese Peace and PETA doing egg addling practices. The
eggs are tested by floating them in water (a yolk sinks, a baby fetus goose
rises to the top) and when they are still yolks - just as one buys in the
grocery store - the eggs are coated with environmentally friendly
corn oil. This blocks the aqueous transfer of oxygen to the embryo and
stops its development. The hen is let to sit on the clutch for a
2 week period, which effectively stops her ability to re-lay a second or
even a third clutch if the first one fails.
In the meantime, Daddy is hanging about, fiercely guarding
his hen and his nest. It is the gander that causes the attack
problem, and I would like to point out several safety tips.
First of all, avoid the nest site if possible. Your
campus is a highly trafficked area, and the ganders' stress levels are higher
than ganders in non-trafficked areas. The gander and fence around
the Social
Sciences building is the most aggressive one on campus, at
present. He tends to behave himself when he is lounging in the grassy
oval of the driveway, but BEWARE of him when he is on the sidewalk or
the grass near the sidewalk near the buildings. So far this spring he
has damaged several humans.
If you must travel this area, try to approach the doors from
the inner campus, not from the driveway side. Carrying an umbrella or one of those sun shades for your
car's windscreen can be very helpful. Just pop them open and
use them to deflect the blows from the wings of the gander - the hen
won't leave her nest, and I don't make her leave by using the dogs - she
needs to sit for those two weeks so that the nest can be taken down and
they will harmlessly return to you pond area. The umbrella or
sun shade also make you appear larger to the gander, and he will back off.
My website, listed below, has Channel Fox 2 news footage
listed under the Canada Goose Management section, there it is depicted on
video some handling techniques, I allowed an 8 year old gander to beat
me up on film to show how to handle him, normally I am unmolested.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me
at the number listed below.
Sincerely,
Dorene and Canine Crew
Dorene Olson, BA, APDT, AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator 9706 TARA
Training and Behavior, LLC WyndSong Border Collies and Canada Goose
Management 314.956.1310 www.doreneolson.com
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