Were they? When I look at ‘original range for Canada geese’, I see the whole continent.
If you mean that an artificial lake may attract nesting geese to a specific locality where they didn’t nest before, sure, that can happen. But the “introduction” was a re-introduction.
The article you linked talks about the “restoration” of deer populations.
Deer are an edge species; they do best in areas where they’ve got access both to woods and open spaces. So they’re rare in deep woods, yes; and human cutting of those woods may lead to an increase in deer populations, yes. But the deer were still there before this civilization (in some parts of their range they and humans may have shown up more or less simultaneously as the glaciers retreated, so I won’t say “before humans”; but that isn’t really what you’re talking about.)
(I wouldn’t call that “restoration” an unqualified success, however, as the article seems to. Excessive deer populations can cause a whole lot of damage to a lot of species, including eventually the deer themselves.)
So…know the source of your ire. This is not a Canada goose
Rather that is an Aleutian cackling goose, which used to be considered a Canada goose variant, but was very appropriately separated out as as a distinct species 20 years ago. As you can see here cackling geese are mostly a Canada goose mini-me. They will often hang with their bigger cousins in the winter, leading to much confusion. That one was photographed in an suburban park with a small flock of conspecifics but very near many actual Canada geese. But they are 100% migratory and are far less numerous than Canada geese.
Of course they still poop prodigiously . But hey, at least they operate in an accepted migratory fashion.
ETA: I mention this partly because I’m pretty sure I can see at least one cackling goose in that video Stranger linked. It’s a very easy mistake to make.
They arrive by the thousands in Portland every year. Goose shit everywhere, especially in the public parks. They produce large numbers of little shitters while they’re visiting, who grow up to be adult shitters with a homing instinct to return to the city of their birth and shit all over it. Between the geese and the crows, it’s hard to decide which are more annoying, but the edge goes to the former.
My buddy Jeff was at Tinicum Nature Reserve outside of Philadelphia years ago about 30 minutes before sunrise to get a specific picture of sunrise over the lake. He had Ranger permission to be there early.
He crested a rise before the lake and started down the other side, a long but not steep slope. Turns out Canada geese had spent the night.
He lost his footing on slippery goose shit and fell onto his back. The entire hillside was coated in goose poop. His hands were full of cameras and a tripod. He slid down the entire hill as if it were a ski slope.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but those geese have a propsensity for pooping at an alarming rate. A few years back, when Occupy Wall Street was still a thing, there were discussions about what to do about the goose problem in Burns Park in North Little Rock. The city talked about organizing a hunt, but ultimately it didn’t come to fruition. As with deer, some people see the little birds and pets and can’t stand the idea of culling the population. The last I heard, in 2018 or 2019, they settled on using dogs to run the geese off.
By far the most annoying of the Canada Geese are the ones from Quebec. Honking in French all the time and they walk in the street even more slowly with even less regard for traffic.
Judging from the massive flocks of migratory Quebecois car drivers we see here in winter, apparently the geese also moonlight as driving instructors up north.
I call it goose grease because when fresh it can be alarmingly slippery. It was about 15 years ago that my wife and I visited a waterfront park here in Toronto. We’d brought sandwiches along and were sitting on a bench eating when about 20 Canada Geese waddled over to us and started trying to grab bites. I had to take our backpack and start slapping the fuckers with it to chase them away while my wife jumped up on the bench to avoid being bitten. Their wings can deliver painful blows but for some reason none of them tried to bite me.
. But hey, at least they operate in an accepted migratory fashion.
