Discussion»Questions»Animals (Wild)» For ornithologists: Last weekend I saw two Canada geese trying to drown another goose in a canal. Is this sort of behaviour common?
Yes.....most likely that two male geese were putting it on a female goose......Most all male ducks,geese gang up and rape kind of the female...... Swans on the other hand mate for life....
Nice Jugs is spot on, I think. Geese, like ducks are very harsh on females, they pretty much don't care what she wants and there if often more than one male trying, which, if anything, just makes the activity more aggressive. It's quite common, not nice to watch, and yes, female ducks and geese can even get killed in this process
I watched it happen once when I was quite small and my family was over Epping Forest near a small lake.... There was three pretty coloured Malards giving it large to one dowdy brown lady duck....one held her by the back of her neck with his Bill,another stood on her back and held her down ,while the last one put a smile on his face.... It was extreamly violent and my parents had to try and explain while trying to contain their laughter....
Many years later ,I watched a David Attenbourgh program about it and saw it all over again.....The geese were far larger and stronger to.....Poor ole Mrs Goose stood no chance....,The Randy D were at it again.....lol
I thought it was past the season for mating now . . . but you and Daydreambeliever may still be right, I have heard of that sort of behaviour in mallards.
But I have also read about swans drowning smaller birds (ducklings) in a harbour - people were throwing them bread and the swans saw the ducks as competition.
I'm not an ornithologist. Two answers on this site that read as if they are confident in their information suggest it is aggressive territorial behavior among 3 male geese.
That could be it too... I was basing it on duck behaviour and they are known to absolutely bully the female, she often suffers injury and can even die.. So I could be wrong and it may be that in geese it's more common for the males to fight.
They never used to fight until someone started saying ”what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” now they fight all of the time for gender equality
Adaydreambeliever 