Gosling-napper runs afowl of migratory bird law

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This article was published 17/05/2024 (562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What happened to the goslings gave a group of Winnipeggers goose bumps.

Workers at a shoe store and Liquor Mart on Regent Avenue were stunned last week when they saw two goslings get snatched up from the pavement, put in a shopping bag and into a vehicle. The driver took off while the mother goose watched nearby as she sat on her nest keeping two eggs warm.

“I saw it happen and I just yelled at the woman,” said Nicole Greening.

“She had a shopping bag and I yelled ‘what are you doing?’ Then another woman came over, picked up each of the goslings, and just tossed them into the bag before walking away.

“Other people were yelling at (the woman with the bag) saying what she was doing was illegal. She said she was taking them out of the parking lot to the woods, in nature. I said, ‘they’re not going to survive,’ but she drove off.”

A photograph was snapped of the gosling-napper’s vehicle.

Greening said the gander flew back to the nest a short time later and then the two geese started honking and looking around.

“The two were in distress trying to figure out where their children were,” she said.

“They had just hatched that morning. We were all almost in tears. I’ve never yelled at anyone like that in my life before, but I did this time.

“These were not orphaned animals.”

Zoe Nakata, executive director of the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, said people should leave geese and their goslings alone.

“Our message is parent geese are excellent caregivers,” Nakata said.

“They are the experts. If anyone suspects a gosling is in danger, it is really important to call a wildlife rehabilitation centre.”

Nakata said goslings need their parents during the first few weeks of life to feed them and get them ready to live on their own. Without proper nutrition, their wings and feathers can be negatively affected.

She said geese will put their nests in all sorts of places, so what might seem dangerous to us is fine for them.

“Geese are highly adaptable,” she said. “We’ve seen them nest in strange places, but they are good parents.”

As for the woman who took the goslings, she could be subject to major penalties.

Samantha Bayard, an Environment and Climate Change Canada spokeswoman, said the office is aware of the gosling-napping and has opened a file on the incident, which may fall under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act of 1994.

For a first-time offender, a conviction carries a penalty of a possible jail term of up to six months, plus a minimum fine of $5,000 and a maximum fine of $300,000.

Bayard said the law “is to protect and conserve migratory bird populations as well as individual migratory birds and their nests.”

“The (law), and its regulations, regulate potentially harmful human activities that may impact them. As this is an ongoing enforcement file, Environment and Climate Change Canada doesn’t have any further information to provide at this time.”

Manitoba Conservation said it’s probing the matter.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca