The Management of the Windsor Gansor population of Canada will require a militant effort for several years to make a dent in the number of birds throughout the city.
According to Dan Frankian from Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control, an expert in bird control with more than 36 years of experience in the management of animal populations.
“They come after you and chase them, and we know how militants can be,” Frankian told CBC.
The former sniper of the Canadian Armed Forces and the teacher Falconer have traveled all over the world to help large corporations and government agencies to control bird populations.
Frankian said that dealing with Canada’s geese needs a special diligence.
“I mean, they are called the Canadian Air Force, not for unknown reasons. These things are fine, well,” Frankian advised.
The city of Windsor has hired a contractor to eliminate 150 eggs from seven nesting places in Windsor. It is a method that requires a federal government permit.
The Council approved a $ 30,000 geese management strategy as part of the city’s annual operational budget earlier this year.
Management Plan A good start, says the federal government
The councilor of the Riverside area, Jo-Anne Gignac, promoted the action on the subject after he heard last summer of a constituent complaining about almost colliding with geese while riding a bicycle in Ganatchio Trail.
“He diverted to avoid them. He was thrown out of his bicycle and spent four days in the hospital with a broken neck bone and six broken ribs,” Gignac told the Council in June 2024.
The geese that cross the occupied roads have led to other collisions in the city, in some cases sending people to the hospital with serious injuries.
“These flocks of geese simply go to the road, people shudder in their brakes and it is a disaster,” Gignac told the Council.
But a federal government spokesman said that Windsor’s management plan is a good starting point that is in line with what cities of similar size in Ontario have been doing.
“However, habitat modification and education are still vital to mitigate human-motive conflicts in Windsor,” wrote Samuel Lafontaine, spokesperson for the environment and Canada’s climate change.
Federal Agency 430’s permits with respect to Canada’s geese have been issued throughout Canada since 2020, and 97 percent of them include egg management methods.
‘Don’t let the population grow’
The Canadian wild life service says that Canada’s geese put two to eight eggs a year, starting when adults are about three years old.
The big birds nest in spring in family areas throughout their lives, which can be up to 25 years.
That means that a Canada goose could produce 176 eggs in his life.
According to the Canadian Wildlife Service, at the end of April at the beginning of June it is when geese are more aggressive, because they are motivated to protect their recently hatched goslings.
Frankian said oils can be applied to eggs to prevent them from hatching, but that will not dissuade a Canadian goose that nest in one place again.
He said that the city contractor should act as a predator to the extent that federal permit allows it.
“Destroy the nest, destroy the eggs, do it in front of the female,” said Frankian, who emphasized that the act needs to show the goose that all humans are a threat.
“The basics is: don’t let the population grow.”
According to the city of Windsor, its federal permit only authorizes “the elimination of nests and eggs for a defined period.”
But Frankian directly believes, the obvious destruction of the nest and eggs is necessary for the plan to be really effective. Otherwise, the goose will persist again in Anidar.
“You are trying to tell the goose, leave, do not return,” Frankian said.
The city of Windsor has obtained a federal permit to eliminate 150 Canada goose eggs, part of an effort to control the local population of the great and persistent bird. But Anti-Gose Dan Frankian says that the city must be a militant about the plan. CBC Chris Ensing reports.
University sports fields protected by dogs
This is not the first time that Windsor has tried to get geese from the popular areas of the park, such as Riverfront Trail.
In 2019, city staff placed two -dimensional dog cuts on the riverbank to try to scare the geese.
The University of Windsor tried the same thing, then had a better idea: to use a real dog to chase geese outside the sports areas of the campus.
Winston, a mixture of St. Bernard-Masteiff, is owned by Rick Daly, Athletic Facilities and Services Manager at the University.
Twice a day, Winston crosses the track and football fields of the Lancer Tollo Center, hindering the life of geese.
“Ultimately, it’s just disturbing them so that they are not unpleasant,” Daly explained.
Daly consulted with golf field operators to find the right approach to prevent the accumulation of “geese content”, the term that Daly uses for goose droppings.
Daly also encourages other members of the owner of dogs to take their pets to the campus and help. “We simply just want to gently remove the location geese here.”
“Dogs will not necessarily catch them. They can’t do it.”
Daly said Winston is paid for his work with sweets and hugs.
Effort of years was needed, says an expert
Frankian said a dog can work to deter the geese of frequenting a park, but it must be consistent.
Chasing geese with dogs is the only method that does not require a federal permit, added Frankian.
The strongest method would be to obtain a permit that allows the physical relocation of geese to other communities.
“Geese Molt,” Frankian said. “In other words, these flight feathers disappear completely. They fall every year. They are without flying.”
That time of the year is when experienced bird control professionals will slowly corner the geese in manageable groups that can be put into trucks and move to another place.
According to Frankian, the key is to survive geese with their efforts: it does not stop until geese surrender, which will take more than a few years.
“When they surrender, you have an extra year, and then you have finished,” Frankian said.
“But if a goose returns and says ‘I’m going to nest here’, you better do it again.”
