City Still Harassing, Unnecessarily, Geese in Prospect Park
- Anne-Katrin Titze
- The remaining goose population at sunrise
Two summers ago, the city abetted the USDA in its round-up and slaughter-by-gassing of 368 Canada geese in Prospect Park, following Captain Sully’s miracle landing on the Hudson—less than a quarter of the geese killed citywide that year. In 2011, the park took steps to avoid another killing: addling goose eggs to prevent them from hatching, and employing a border collie to chase them and break up the flocks.
Crude tactics aside, another round of killings was prevented last year. And it looks again like the USDA will not be coming to Prospect Park again this year to round-up the few remaining geese. So why are park officials still harassing our feathered friends?
“The USDA is not coming to Prospect Park in 2012,” Anne-Katrin Titze, a NY State DEC licensed wildlife rehabilitator and Prospect Park’s chief wildlife advocate, tells us. She and her partner, Ed Bahlman, “met with Emily Lloyd [the Prospect Park Alliance head] at the lake in April to apprise her of the current Canada Goose population. There were 11 geese at that time and now there are 15. Emily said they were going to hire Goosebusters [which employs the border collie] and we said it was not necessary, as proved true in 2011, and again in 2012. There are only two nests this year, the same as last year. The eggs were addled and none have hatched thus far. Goosebusters has been futile the past weeks chasing the few geese to and fro with no results, of course…/p>
“We want wildlife management that supports the protection of our urban wildlife, as well as the maintenance of their habitats in the parks in New York City,” she adds. “The 15 Canada Geese are not going anywhere. They have chosen to become residents of the 60-acre watercourse inside the 585-acre park. That’s one Canada Goose per 39 acres.”
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