Controlling Geese Population the Humane Way

Preserving nature is important to the ecosystem and also happens to make New Canaan neighborhoods some of the most beautiful in New England.

There are some elements of nature, however, that require management. While geese and their goslings are rather nice to look at, they can often cause problems in communities such as: interrupting golf games, treating sidewalks as their own personal bathrooms, and harassing those of us that do not happen to walk about with bags of bread. 

The Parks and Recreation Department is doing their part to keep the Canadian goose population from becoming overwhelming in a manner that Recreation Director Steve Benko calls humane. 

"This program has been around for about 25 years," said Benko. "We have a permit and we'll go in and oil the eggs with vegetable oil and mark them once a week so that the eggs don't hatch. We've been doing this since April and we've only seen a few goslings that we believe are from another site."

According to Benko, applying vegetable oil to a goose egg in its earlier stages will cause the embryo to asphyxiate by blocking gases from diffusing through the pores of the egg.