Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

The recent surge in the population of Canadian geese has made the news the few days due to the wolf decoys the gardens are using to try and move on the geese. These birds, while majestic, have very much made the gardens their home, leading to overpopulation and the associated problems it brings (like lots of geese poop!).

To address the problem, the Christchurch Botanic Gardens have adopted an innovative and non-invasive method to manage the geese population—the wolf decoys. These decoys are designed to mimic the appearance of a natural predator of the geese, creating a sense of danger that encourages the birds to find safer grounds. The idea came from a golf course, which apparently had some success with dissuading the geese from the course. We shall see if it works for the gardens, but from what I’ve seen, the geese seem to walk around the decoys and I fear they may be a bit acclimated to them. If I was a Canadian Goose, I know I’d love living in the beautiful Botanic Gardens. So Good luck! And if you are in the gardens, remember not to feed the geese. It just encourages them, is bad for them and the waterways.

Note, that is is an old photo (from April), when I first blogged about the geese.