Feds remove geese
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

Canadian geese that adopted Tiger Point as their new Florida home were taken away, leaving many residents puzzled.

Lisa Compton, a Tiger Point resident, said she and her two sons loved to watch the geese teach their young to talk in a line behind their mother and to swim in the local ponds.

However, Aaron Williams, general manager of Tiger Point Golf and Country Club said the geese had grown accustomed to the golf course life, and the steady supply of food.

"People feed them, and they don't migrate anymore," Williams said.

Paul Haines, course superintendent said the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services division, recognizes that Canadian geese are becoming unwelcome residents in many parts of the United States.

The birds are migratory in nature, but often find the accommodations too welcoming to move on.

"This bunch apparently hadn't migrated for years," Haines said, and the population was begin- ning to swell.

Specially trained biologists from the Fish and Wildlife division of the U.S. Department of the Interior surveyed the situation at the golf course, and determined that the best course of action was to destroy the birds because they tend to imprint on a certain location and return there when relocated. They issued a permit for their removal.

Haines said it was a hard decision for him as a nature lover.

"I love the outdoors. I try to cohabitate with wildlife," Haines said. The course is enrolled in a wildlife sanctuary program.

But, Canadian geese are not native to this area, and have no natural predators here to control the population explosion.

"I tried to education the people on what happens when we feed wild animals and treat them like domestic pets," Haines said.

Carol Bannerman, public affairs specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services Division, said the goose population is becoming a problem at several other flyover states along the Atlantic seaboard, with geese establishing residency.

Removing the geese is the last resort, Bannerman, and other methods are used first to make the nesting place inhospitable for the geese. She said sprays, repellents and dogs are introduced to try to make the geese move on, and contraceptives are also in development to control the rising resident goose population.

Although Bannerman acknowledges that the geese are "really, really cute," each goose produces about one and a half pounds of feces per day. And when the population is about 50 geese as it was at Tiger Point, it results in about 75 pounds of feces per day that needs to be cleaned up.

"It's an incredible amount of feces that has to be removed," Bannerman said. The geese will establish a couple of favorite spots to do their business, and bacteria can sicken those who do the cleanup.