No it’s not a joke, nor is it fun. Wild geese, specifically wild Canada geese, are causing a lot of damage at the Central Experimental Farm in the national capital, Ottawa.
A group of scientists manage the 400 hectare farm (roughly 1000 acres) which does important research into crop development.
The geese however are destroying that research to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the various plots of corn, soy beans, barley, wheat, and others.
One scientist left work on Friday, and was shocked to return on Monday to find his entire research oat crop gone. “It’s very frustrating, it’s depressing,” said Marc Savard, director of operations for Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre. “These scientists are really devoted to their work. It’s their life’s work. And for them it’s a big, big disappointment.
The scientists have tried all sorts of other methods, including decoys and even human patrols, to no avail.
Now they’re hiring two border collies to chase the approximately 1000 birds, away from the site. It costs $44,000 a year to hire the Border Control Bird Dogs service, but it’s worth it in savings of time and costs to develop new research seeds and grow them.
The dogs and handlers show up for three hours and dawn, and three hours at dusk. The dogs don’t harm the birds, they just scare them away.
Heather Williams of Border Control Bird Dogs says, “As of today there are no geese at all at the farm, but we will expect them to return. The geese work on a cycle, they will be back. They’ll try and come back before they lose their flight feathers, and they’ll definitely be returning in August.
Meanwhile a similar programme is in effect at the University of Waterloo, where Molson, a border collie-golden retriever cross is being employed to scare away the geese. He and his handler, student Alex Harris, are being called “the geese police”. At the university the problem is that the geese aggressively defend their nests and harass and frighten students on campus. They can also produce rather huge amounts of manure, roughly a pound or more of poop per bird per day
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.