Eunoia
UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT, NOTHING IS GOING TO GET BETTER IT'S NOT - Dr. Seuss
Snow Goose
There are technically two types of snow geese. Lesser Snow Geese, and Greater Snow Geese. Greater Snow Geese can travel up to 1,000 km non-stop. At one day old they can walk around 30 km.
Yellow Listed
Human Health Hazard
Conservation Status
Syilx
Snow Goose in Syilx is “smik’ʷt k̓ʷsixʷ”. The Syilx has learned from birds themselves on how to build, from the nest building.
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Description
The Lesser Snow Geese has a white and blue color phase. The white phase goose is completely white, except for the wing tips. The blue phase has blackish blue feathers on the body. They may have rusty faces, from ground soil. Same as the white phase Lesser Snow Goose, Greater Snow Geese are completely white, except for the black wing tips. They are both almost the same. Wingspan of an adult Greater Snow Goose can be about 1.5 m. They can weigh up to 3.5kg. Lesser Snow Geese have a wingspan of about 90cm and weigh about 2.7kg, or more.
Habitat
During the breeding season, from June to September, snow geese settle in the high arctic tundra near the coast, near ponds and streams. Snow Geese adapt quickly to agricultural fields. Snow geese have strong bills to tear the roots from the ground. Every Spring and Fall, they fly over southern Canada. During the winter and migration, they’re often in wetlands, or cornfields. They bathe around shorelines and open water. Greater snow geese are most likely migrating around Southern Quebec, and some Lesser snow geese can be seen. In the lower mainland of British Columbia, Lesser snow geese migrating can be more seen.
Food
Snow geese feed on all varieties of plants. Grass, sedges, leaves, seeds, roots, horsetails, bush shrubs, and willows. They go to agricultural fields to look for leftover corn, oats, and wheat. When breeding, many eat insects to produce their eggs. Baby goslings eat insect larvae. By fall, they feed on berries. They’re often in huge flocks.
Social System, Activity & Movements
Snow geese all have a strong family bond. Though it technically breaks up when the parents start a new nest, or the young ones start a family of their own. All of them remain together through the spring, fall, and winter migrations. A group of geese on the ground are called a gaggle. In flight, they’re called a skein, team, wedge, and when close together they’re called a plump. Snow geese are strong fliers, swimmers and walkers.
Reproduction & Parental Care
Lesser snow geese breed around Queen Maud Gulf, Baffin Island, Banks Island and Victoria Island, in the Northwest Territories and on Hudson Bay. Greater snow geese breed around Foxe Basin, northern Baffin, Bylot, Axel Heiberg and the Ellesmere Islands located in Nunavut, Canada and in Greenland.
Egg laying begins from May to mid-June. If delayed by snow cover by June, they resorb their eggs and wait until next year. They nest in groups. The nest is made out of moss or gravel that builds up into a mound with moss, willow, some feathers, and grasses. Usually by low grassy plains, and near the shore of shallow rivers. 2-6 eggs are produced. Incubation or sitting in the nest to keep the eggs warm starts after the last egg is laid and continues around 23 more days. The time varies on the number of eggs produced. After they’ve all hatched, they either go out of the nest after a few hours or stay in for a day. They leave the nest with their parents and go feed. When hatched, they’re about 100g. In 6-7 weeks, they grow to about 1,200g. Some goslings swim up to 50k with their parents, during the 8 week period from hatching, to fledging, to their first flight. The goslings have to grow large quickly, so they can fly south before winter.
Natural Mortality & Predators
Nest predators are arctic and red foxes, herring and glaucous gulls, and parasitic jaegers, polar bears, black bears, gray wolves, ravens, and eagles. They prey on the geese or eggs. Between 1999-2009, hunters have been taking 1 million snow geese per year in Canada and the U.S together.
Credit
Lynn Fong - Grade 7 Student - Vernon British Columbia