$960K project seeks answers to human-goose conflicts

Alert: Goose nesting season is just around the corner

Feb 24, 2022

A giant Canada goose defends its nest. David Shearer photo.

MUNCIE — A stranger who passed me on the White River Greenway in January joked that “walking here is like playing hop scotch.”

On that section of the paved trail, downstream from Westside Park, walkers have to dodge greenish-brown, tubular-shaped droppings from hundreds of Canada geese congregating there.

The skittish geese flapped away from people in January but will start standing their ground after nesting season kicks off in the coming days (scouting for nesting locations is already underway).

That will lead to goose-human conflicts, which a $960,000 research project by Ball State University and Franklin College hopes to help reduce.

Entering its fifth year, the study has netted, corralled and banded nearly 8,000 geese in greater Indianapolis.

Indiana’s breeding giant-Canada-goose population is estimated to fluctuate between 90,000 and 125,000, and the state has set a goal of keeping the population down around 80,000.

“The forward-thinking DNR realizes that the number of nuisance permits being issued to destroy or relocate birds is growing by the year,” said Tim Carter, a BSU professor of biology who secured the federal research funding. “They see this as a problem that is not going away but getting bigger.”

(The number of Canada goose “trap/transport, lethal removal and agricultural depredation” permits issued by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has grown from 147 in 2008 to 264 last year, the agency told me. Or, people can destroy nests and eggs by simply registering online with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; registration statistics weren’t available to me).

Walkers tiptoe through goose droppings on White River Greenway in January. Photo by Seth Slabaugh

“Geese are native to Indiana,” Carter said in an interview. “They were here first, before Westside park, though we almost drove them to extinction (60 years ago). They have just as much right to be here as our Cardinals.”

As a result of restoration efforts and a huge increase in the number of retention ponds, geese are now common, or a common nuisance, some would argue.

“It’s not their fault that we’ve created the perfect environment for them, literally perfect habitat,” Carter said, referring to the green grass that geese love to eat; the nearby waterbodies; and the open space so they can see predators coming.

“They eat grass better than lawn mowers, like goats with feathers,” the professor said.

Their grassy diet explains why goose poop is sometimes green. And the old figure of speech, “like crap through a goose,” meaning very fast, explains why goose droppings litter the White River Greenway. According to one of Carter’s student researchers, geese defecate every seven to 12 minutes, up to two pounds a day.

A single, quick-fix solution is not the answer to goose management, which requires long-term plans including community buy-in, according to the DNR.

Erie, Pa., native David Shearer, a Ball State doctoral student and co-lead investigator on the research project, has turned into a goose lover.

While geese are viewed as “aggressive” when close to people, “I think they’re just being defensive,” Shearer said during a presentation to the Robert Cooper Audubon Society. “But people don’t like it when they attack.” Which might explain why “any one of us can go online and get a nest and egg destruction permit — it’s like a five-minute process.”

When I complained to Shearer about goose droppings acting as a deterrent to recreational trail use, he responded, “I will be the advocate. They have just as much right to be there as we do.”

But he added that the first thing people say when they learn he’s a goose researcher is, “How do we get them to stop pooping? It’s a common complaint.” His own dog seems to enjoy goose droppings. “I hate it, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said.

There are management techniques, Shearer noted. They include, according to DNR, not feeding the geese; planting tall grasses, wildflowers and shrubs at the water’s edge to deter geese from using shorelines; and harassment with air horns, blank pistols, firecrackers, dogs, balloons, lasers, and garden hoses, in addition to hunting, trapping and destroying nests and eggs.

David Shearer speaks to Robert Cooper Audubon Society members via Zoom.

The state’s ultimate goal is to reduce the number of conflicts, not to eliminate all geese.

The research project, which includes countless college students, has captured about 8,000 geese in greater Indianapolis. They are caught with a variety of nets as well as corrals during the flightless summer period when the geese are shedding and replacing their flight feathers.

The geese are then banded, which basically gives each one a name.

The researchers also work with Nuisance Waterfowl Control Operators (NWCOs), each of which is licensed to kill up to 2,000 geese per year and to relocate an unlimited number of others.

The study is examining who fills in “that highly attractive, vacant urban habitat” after “depopulation events,” Shearer said. And, “are these depopulation events really worth it? Are they controlling the populations … ?”

So, for example, in 2020, “eight sites experienced relocation of just over 900 birds that were relocated 80 or more miles away from their original site,” he went on. “Our preliminary analysis shows that at least 20% returned the following year after relocation, so it’s not as effective a management technique as one might think … Eighty or more miles away for a bird is nothing.”

Some of the birds, for instance, have been equipped with geolocators that have shown them migrating from Indiana to glacial lakes in Canada.

A jogger passes a gaggle of geese at Westside Park. Photo by Seth Slabaugh

“We’re still in the early stages of analyzing a lot of data,” Professor Carter said. “We want to understand how they move on the landscape. When we remove 100 geese from a pond in your subdivision because they’re making a mess, and a year later it’s full of geese again, where are they coming from?”

By banding every goose within 1 kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) in each study area before they’re relocated, “we can monitor to see who fills in that void in the post-treatment phase,” Carter said. “We will know at the very least whether they came from 1 kilometer away. Are they coming from down the road? Are they rural geese coming from farm fields? Are they distant geese?”

Ball State and Franklin College aren’t the only parties banding geese. Every state has a program that bands geese throughout its entire state every year, including up to 3,000 geese in the Hoosier state in a good year.

The point is, it’s possible that you could have geese from Iowa repopulating a site from which geese have been removed in Indianapolis, Carter said. “Knowing where they come from and how they got here … will give us a better understanding of best management practices.”

Management is a state-by-state decision. Nuisance waterfowl control operators are not permitted in Illinois, for example, Shearer said.

Sixty years ago, giant Canada geese were very rare in Indiana. Pixabay photo

“Relative to Canada geese, a species who flourishes within the built environment —mowed lawns and ponds—David’s presentation reminded me of the complexity of bird and human interactions, especially competition for the same habitat,” Annette Rose, president of the local Audubon Society, said via email. “For example, Canada geese feed upon domesticated grasses and humans feed the geese.

“As the geese population increases, the feces increase and add nutrients to bodies of water that, in turn, promotes algae and plant growth. As these die, decomposition depletes oxygen levels in the body of water, creating conditions where other organisms — fish — perish. Research is needed to inform management strategies to protect geese, people, and wildlife habitats.”

DNA testing by the Muncie Sanitary District’s Bureau of Water Quality found nothing rock solid to suggest that geese are a huge contributor of E. coli contamination of the White River, said director Rick Conrad.

“It may be significant,” and “we presume they are contributing,” he went on, but “it’s nowhere near as important” as the huge amounts of raw sewage discharged into the river from combined sewer overflows during wet weather.

Goose waste contamination of retention ponds might be another story.

The DNR-BSU-Franklin College research project — 75% federally funded by a tax on sporting arms and ammunition — is also surveying people’s attitudes toward geese. The project is doing so through postcards being sent this spring and again this summer to residents of Greenfield, Speedway and Southport.

“The rationale is that public opinion … often influences management practices,” Shearer said, adding that little attention has been paid to people’s thoughts about geese in North America.

Most opinion surveys that Shearer has seen were conducted in Europe, which is “surprisingly accepting of geese around residential areas,” he said gladly, noting, “I am in it for the geese.”

Greater Muncie

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