The Canada goose native to central North America and the focal animal of this lab report. The following behaviors were observed on Monday, Octobers 2, 2017 starting at approximately 12:21 pm, at the pond located at the center of inner circle drive at University of Toronto Mississauga. It was approximately 21C with clear skies and very few clouds. The observation was done in two parts to examine the behavior of the geese. First off, upon arriving on location a behavioral analysis was conducted on a large flock of geese (approx. 24 geese), all geese during this observation were present inside the pond at a distance of roughly 50 meters assuring the behaviors are not effected by external presence. Following the 30 minutes observation of the flock, …show more content…
It was apparent why the geese might have chosen to separate themselves in different groups, the first group was made up of about six geese and they all demonstrated a foraging behavior which remained undisturbed throughout the thirty minutes they were observed. This behavior consisted of three main observations and these behaviors were consistently occurring in the same patter. For the geese portraying the forging behavior they would begin with grazing the top of the water with their beak in a swooping action, then moving onto lowering their long neck under the water to most likely eat the grass or algae growing under the water, also, when the food was too low the geese would lower its neck under the water and push its legs up as if were doing a headstand, with its legs vertically up. This action could also be categorized as diving, it seemed as if they were diving for food. However, taking a more intensive look at its behavior it was noticed that all the geese would continuously move, this maybe for various reasons. One can hypothesize that the geese continuously moves to ensure that they do not get separated from the flock, moreover, it could also indicate that the geese is not trying to preserve its source of food and make sure it does not diminish. Furthermore, the second group was composed of roughly four geese who portrayed a resting behavior, where they turn their neck back towards their wing, next they take their beak and rest it underneath their feather. It was not difficult to notice that while the forging geese were moving around alert with their heads high, the resting geese preferred being closer to the shore and not being in direct sunlight. When observing the flock as a whole it was evident that they preferred to stay close to one another, which could possibly be a defense mechanism. While