Written by: simon Allen
2021
Egyptian Goose are increasing in number due to humans creating favorable conditions; golf courses are perfect goose habitat, playing corridors provide short grass feeding grounds and water traps act as roosting and breeding areas. Short-term controls such as shooting or poisoning are ineffective as geese are prolific breeders, also removing a part of the population leaves a ‘vacuum’ into which other geese simply move. Long term solutions are chosen on Pearl Valley: • Leaving riparian zones around water bodies unmown. Geese prefer water sources with easy access, allowing the riparian zones to develop as a natural barrier, the geese are less inclined to utilise these shorelines. • The services of a local falconer to harass the geese, pressurising them to move elsewhere. The falconer, with the hawk, uses a golf cart to move around, which makes the geese alert when any golf cart comes into view, this way golfer’s movements become part of the pressure on the geese.
