Community Corner

Despite 'Addling' and Collies, Goslings Arrive at Prospect Park

Four little ones join park's depleted goose population.

Four new goslings have hatched in Prospect Park, despite the .

The goslings, which were first reported by  The Brooklyn Paper, were born on Saturday, May 7, at the Upper Pool of the lake according to an e-mail to Prospect Heights Patch from wildlife rehabilitator Anne-Katrin Titze. Two of
the six eggs that were oiled did not hatch, Titze added.

Last summer, the USDA rounded up and gassed 368 geese, according to the agency, to keep the population at the park in check in response to the 2009 US Airways “Miracle on the Hudson” landing after geese were sucked into the plane’s engine.

Find out what's happening in Prospect Heights-Crown Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The gassing was part of a 19-site citywide "capture-removal" program involving 1,676 geese, according to USDA spokeswoman Carol Bannerman.

To prevent another slaughter this year, members of the Prospect Park Alliance have been trying to keep the population in check through natural techniques.

Find out what's happening in Prospect Heights-Crown Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The goose officials “addled” the eggs, coating them with oil to keep oxygen from getting to the embryo inside. The eggs were then returned to the nest to prevent the geese from laying more, according to the report.

Prospect Park spokesman Eugene Patron told the newspaper that geese turn the eggs during the incubation period, which might have caused the oil to rub off.

The Prospect Park Alliance also brought in Cleo, a Border Collie, to chase the geese away, through a company called Goose Busters, at the cost of $725 a week for eight weeks.  

But according to Titze, the wildlife rehabilitator and a frequent visitor to the park, none of these efforts are necessary, because the park only has, by her count, the four goslings, plus about 23 adult geese right now.

“Only 23 Canada Geese have chosen to try and become residents of the 585 acre Prospect Park. Is it asking too much to permit such a small number to be able to prosper more than 9 miles from our airports at the only lake in Brooklyn?” she asked via e-mail.


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