How Much Does a Canada Goose Poop in a Day? The Answer is Kind of Surprising
OutdoorHub Reporters 11.08.17
How much poop can a Canada goose poop in one day?
The answer to this revolting question will gross you out entirely, but it probably won’t surprise you all that much. . .
According to the Detroit Free Press, Canada goose numbers were way down in the 20th century due to over-hunting, so efforts were made to introduce the birds to Michigan. To say they thrived would be an understatement.
Going from a population of 9,000 birds in 1970, the state is now home to more than 300,000 Canada geese. With that drastic increase in geese moving in, comes a whole lot of poop.
Now, before we get to any numbers, it’s worth mentioning the growing problem these birds present.
Canada geese appear to share the same interest in areas that we as humans also like to hangout at, such as golf courses, beaches, parks, the list goes on. . .
And when the geese find a prime spot to set up camp, they tend to stick around. They eat, they poop, (a lot) swim, and repeat. Then of course they have dozens of young Canada geese to carry on the same tendencies.
“You’ve got a lot of golf courses, a lot of cemeteries; anywhere you have well manicured grass, that’s where they are going to be,” said Eric McGhee, a waterfowl hunter who sits on the state’s Citizen Waterfowl Advisory Committee.
Canada goose complaints usually fit into one of three categories, McGhee said:
Category 1: Aggressive birds
“People have them around their offices, and, especially in the springtime, when they are mating and laying eggs, that’s when you get a lot of people saying they are being harassed by the geese,” he said. They’re being chased by them; they’re having to fight them off.”
Category 2: The pooping
According to the Detroit Free Press, an adult Canada goose poops an average of 2 pounds per day. . . These aren’t even proper, dainty poops either. In fact, it’s not at all uncommon for beaches to be closed due to high levels of E. coli bacteria in shoreline waters.
And finally,
Category 3: Farmer’s crops
Farmers and Canada geese don’t get along real well. The geese love corn, wheat and soybeans, and Michigan has plenty of fields filled with them.
“They’ll come and feast all day on your crops,” McGhee said. “They’ll eat a couple of acres of crop, go sleep it off, and come back the next day to do it all over again.”
The solution, McGhee believes, is getting more people into hunting.
“Waterfowl hunting is in decline right now,” he said. “If we could teach the younger hunters it’s OK to go out and manage this problem, it would help. And it is a problem; despite the hunters, the bag limits and what the state is doing to harvest and conserve these birds.”
