Great Canadian

OTHER nationalities may be different, but for Canadians
almost everything is viewed as a problem.

In this country we have the In-
dian Problem, the French Prob-
lem, the Foreign Ownership Prob-
lem, the Unwed Mother Problem
and the Constitutional Problem.

If we found solutions to them
all there'd be so many that we'd
have a Solution Problem which
could be the worst of all. People
in this country are happier with
problems than with solutions.

The latest addition to the list is
the Canada Goose Problem, one
which we had never expected to
have.

Canada Geese used to be rare
and they kept very much to
themselves. About all the average
Canadian knew about them was
that they mated for life as the
Canadian themselves used to do.

Although untrue, this was ad-
mirable, like so many untrue
things, and a few years ago it
could be said that we had no
Goose Problem.

Not today. Today we have
9,000 Canadas living between
Hope and the salt chuck and no-
body talks about their admirable
tarital customs any more. People
talk about their digestive pro-
cesses.

A Canada Goose evacuates its
bowels every 20 minutes and can
do so even while in flight. With
canaries that wouldn't maiter
much, but Canadas go five to
seven kilos and cat accordingly,
That is the Problem.

Even outside the boundaries of
this pessimistic nation our geese
are becoming unwelcome.

They have proliferated on the
green grass of England, and the
English, normally a forgiving lot

Pau
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

where birds or animals are con-
cerned, are becoming quite ir-
ritated about them.

Toronto is another place that
has experienced the population
explosion.

An enterprising television news
department recently fed Toronto
Canada Goose statistics into its
computer. This survey showed
that if present goose population
trends continue, dy the year 2078
AD Toronto will be buried to the
height of the CN Tower in goose
turds. Even those who think this
is a first-class idea are a bit sturtl-
ed by the figures.

In 1991, for the second year,
bird hunters have been permitted
to kill more geese than mallard
ducks and five times as many as
Golden Eve ducks, a bag lirnit
that would once have boggled

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even the least boggubile of imagi-
nations.

**Geese have become another
Starling Problem,”* says Rick
McKelvey, a biologist with the
Canadian Wildlife Service who
specializes in southern B.C.
waterfowl.

He refers to another old
favorite Canadian Problem, the
Starlings who were imported from
Africa and once seemed destined
to drive every other bird out of
the country and every householder
out of his mind.

The Starlings were a different
case. Imported birds often in-
crease to extravagant numbers be-
fore natural population control
measures develop, as such
measures apparently did in this
region.

But Canada Geese have been
here as long as the salmon and
longer than men. Why the great
increase in the past decade or so?

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goose problem

Why did they increase while
duck populations decreased?

If they increased in the Fraser
Valley because hunting of them
has ceased, why did the same in-
crease occur in Chilcotin and
other regions where hunting.
pressure has remained the same or
perhaps increased?

Mr. McKelvey points out that
places such as Vancouver offer
plenty of good grass and good
nesting sites. Also, he says, geese
rapidly lose their fear of humans.

It isn’t a good enough explana-
tion, Mr. McKelvey. Vancouver
always had plenty of grass,
nesting sites and friendly humans.

And do not tell us again that
geese arc big, aggressive, prolific
and strongly protective of their
young. They have been that way
for half a million years or so.

Mr. McKelvey reports that as
far as he knows, no scientific
study, nay, not even a simple, or-

8, 1991 ~ North Shore News - 9

dinary little old Royal Commis-
sion, is studying the Goose Prob-
lem. He and his associates here
don't have time. They are using a
crude but effective birth control
system.

At meeting time, Wildlife peo-
ple run around looking for goose
nests and when they find them .
they shake the eggs until they’re
addled and then pop them back
into the nest for the parents, also
addied, to try to hatch. This
worked well enough in the Bur-
naby Lake area to stabilize the
flock at about 400 frustrated adult
birds.

Eventually, the Canada Goose
problem will fade in Canada, as
all our best problems do. Uf the
next Problem is a Hummingbird
Problem, Mr. McKelvey and his
cohorts will have to try something
other than picking up the eggs and
shaking them silly.
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