Love it or hate it, the geese are here to stay in Wichita’s welcoming environment

There are two types of people in Wichita, biology professor Alan Maccarone says: those who love geese, and those who hate them.

The first group feeds the geese as they visit Riverside Park and the Keeper of the Plains. The second group dreads having to step around the goose droppings as they go for a stroll along the river.

Whichever way you lean, Maccarone says the geese are here to stay — and all the reasons trace back to us.

“Geese may not be the Einsteins of the bird world, but it doesn’t take them long to figure out (Wichita is a welcoming place),” Maccarone, a professor at Friends University, said. “ ... They’ve basically got everything handed to them by people — they’ve got warmth, safety, water and food. A goose would have to be pretty stupid to not take advantage of that.”

In an 86-mile waterfowl survey in the first week of January within Wichita and the surrounding area (85th St. North to 55th St. South, and Rock to Ridge), wildlife biologist Charlie Cope said an estimated 34,586 Canada geese were counted. He said there are likely many more geese than that in Wichita right now, but he doesn’t have an estimate.

The survey is not as thorough as the “Midwinter Canada Goose Survey” that was discontinued in 2014, as the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism no longer felt a need for it. About 32,000 geese were counted in the 2013 survey, and the amount of geese was more than double that in 2011, with an estimated 71,600 geese.

When the survey first started in 1983, only 1,600 geese were counted within Wichita city limits, according to a research paper written by Maccarone and Cope.

Wichita is welcoming

There are four main reasons — heat, safety, water and food — that make Wichita so welcoming to Canada geese, Maccarone said.

“If you’re a goose struggling to get through the winter, it’s better to be warmer than cooler,” he said. “And the fact that cities are basically constructed ecosystems with heat-generating structures, it makes it a welcoming place.”

Wichita also provides a safety net to the geese. It is illegal to kill a goose in city limits, and there are not many predators of the geese within city limits.

“Not that there are none — there are dozens of coyotes walking around the streets — and there are bobcats and bald eagles, ... so it’s not like cities are devoid of predatory threats, but the likelihood of getting taken down by a coyote is a lot lower if you’re roosting on the river near the Keeper of the Plains than if you’re out in the middle of nowhere,” Maccarone said.

The waterways and water features in Wichita also make the city a welcoming home.

“One of the things that Wichita must be to a goose is an oasis,” Maccarone said. “You’re going to find a water feature behind every complex. And surrounding that water feature is going to be beautifully manicured grass, and geese are herbivores.

“Turns out the geese like lawns too,” he continued. “They like to eat the grass and then (poop) on it when they’re done.”

The geese also find food in surrounding agricultural fields, including soybean and corn fields, Cope said.

Will they ever fly South?

“Animals are like people,” Maccarone said. “They are basically lazy. Why would a bird migrate?”

In the case of the geese, all they need is open water and grass, which they still have during Wichita winters.

“Why migrate if they don’t have to?” he said.

Cope said that if there was enough snow to cover their food and if the rivers froze for a longer period of time, they may fly south, but that is not likely.

“As long as there’s food, there’s no reason for them to leave,” he said.

Goose complaints

In 2017, 39 people complained about Canada geese to the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Cope said.

As of Jan. 11, four people have complained about the geese in 2018.

“Keep in mind that the giant Canada goose was thought to be extinct 60 years ago,” Cope said. “While it is a wildlife success story that has had some drawbacks, would anyone want to live in a sterile environment where they never observed geese flying overhead or heard their call in the middle of a cold winter night?”

Some drawbacks include potential groundwater contamination, goose droppings throughout the city and dangers to drivers who might run into a goose.

“I don’t see them as a nuisance, but it’s a term that has been applied to (geese),” Maccarone said.

He said there certainly must be a carrying capacity — the number of geese that Wichita can support without environmental degradation — but 50,000 must not be that number.

“As the city expands, it’s going to increase the carrying capacity,” he said. “There’s going to be more lakes, more grass.

“I don’t see those (drawbacks) happening if the city continues to expand,” he continued.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 5:57 AM with the headline "Love it or hate it, the geese are here to stay in Wichita’s welcoming environment."