Officials at Prospect Park are mulling ways to reduce the number of Canada geese at the park without actually killing them, ranging from coating goose eggs with oil, to forbidding the feeding of geese, to chasing them off with border collies patrolling from boats, according to the New York Times.
Eugene Patron, the spokesman for the Prospect Park Alliance, which manages the park, laid out the five possible goose-management techniques discussed Wednesday night at a public meeting of the park’s wildlife management advisory committee:
* No-Feed Zone: Mr. Patron said that the parks commissioner could designate the lake a no-feed zone. Under this plan, volunteers and a public education campaign would be deployed to “explain that if people care about the geese and don’t want the government coming in and culling them, then feeding them and attracting them is actually bad for them,” Mr. Patron said.
He was referring to the slaughter of some 400 Prospect Park geese by federal authorities last July as part of a plan to eradicate the animals near airports to keep them from getting sucked into jet engines. Other geese have arrived to replace the dead ones, and the park’s population now stands at about 170, wildlife advocates say.
* Egg Oiling: “You coat the egg with oil so that it can’t mature,” Mr. Patron said. “There’s no exchange of gases.” In effect, the little embryos are suffocated inside their shells. This tactic, Mr. Patron said, which is endorsed by the Humane Society, would require state permits. It would be done in the spring, when eggs are laid.
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