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Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese Page 6 of 11 <br />8 . COMBINATION OF TECHNIQUES SUCCESSFUL AT INNIS <br />ARDEN GOLF CLUB, OLD GREENWICH CONNECTICUT <br />(Smithsonian, March 1995) <br />Pat Lucas took over as superintendent of the Innis Arden Golf Club in <br />Old Greenwich, CT in the late 1970's. His strategy for managing geese <br />is two - pronged. 1) Large plastic swans accompanied by small plastic <br />cygnets. "We have three fake swan families on our pond. If geese fly <br />over and see the swans, nine times out of ten they go somewhere else <br />because they know that swans with cygnets are vicious. But you can't <br />just put out swans and live happily ever after. If the geese do land, and <br />you don't do anything, pretty soon the bravest one will go in the water, <br />and then more of them. Pretty soon they're swimming around the <br />swans, and the jig is up. <br />Which brings Lucas to his second prong. "We've named it the hunter - <br />ambush approach. If they land on the grass, you have to make them <br />feel hunted. I'll have a guy with a shotgun creep up on them from the <br />woods for 10 or 15 minutes early in the moming or late in the evening. <br />The gander will give out a signal: 'Something's wrong!' They stop <br />eating. All their heads point in one direction, toward the stalker. They <br />start to flap their wings a little. That means they're primed to go. Then <br />the guy comes out of the woods blasting blanks. They take off and <br />won't come back because they get the message. <br />Sometimes, though, Lucas runs into geese that won't leave, the ones <br />he calls "rogue geese -hard cases." To give these toughs the willies, the <br />ambusher carries a boom box and just before he jumps out shooting, <br />he cranks up a tape of Canada goose distress calls. "You're speaking <br />in their own language. It gets rid of them ." Golf course superintendents <br />from all over the country call Lucas for advice. "The key is, you've got <br />to stop thinking like a human and start thinking like a goose." <br />9. EGG ADDLING (regulated by Federal permit) <br />A. <br />Egg addling, considered a lethal method, includes: <br />1) Shaking <br />2) Oiling <br />3) Puncturing <br />4) Freezing <br />After treatment, some eggs must be retumed to the nest or <br />the mother goose will lay more. <br />http://www.icu.com/geese/report2a.html <br />Page 87 <br />4/7/00 <br />