Canada Goose Family Out For a Swim

Here are 2 adult and 2 juvenile Canada Geese out for a swim. I don't recall if they jumped into the water to avoid getting their picture taken by me. (If that was the plan, it didn't work.) 

Canada Geese and most ducks have opposite strategies towards reproduction. Ducks are famous for large broods with little adult supervision and thus high attrition rates. Canada Geese tend to go the opposite route, having smaller broods which the parents attentively teach and defend, leading to a higher percentage of goslings making it to adulthood. Both strategies can work since we have quite a few ducks and Canada Geese kicking around.

This is probably a family of geese, though my understanding is that at some point the male goslings are taken under the wing of other male geese, and a symmetrical thing happens with the female goslings. Since there's virtually no sexual dimorphism in Canada Geese, I can't tell you exactly what's going on. My guess though is that these goslings are young enough that they're still being raised by their parents.

May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 292816404, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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