While walking with my daughter by the River Wear in Durham today, I noticed a female mute swan on the river with a white domestic/farmyard type goose close by.
The goose mirrored every move that the swan made, following it around, never more than three or four feet away.
I had never seen this behaviour before, and in trying to explain it I could only come up with two theories.
One, the big white goose mistook another big white bird for its own kind, although I thought this unlikely. Even if it did, why would it follow it so closely?
The only other thing I could think of is that the goose had somehow become imprinted on the swan after hatching, which would explain its cygnet-like behaviour.
I can't believe it was just some sort of coincidence. We watched them for almost ten minutes and the goose's behaviour didn't change. Also, just a short way upstream, there was another white, domestic-type goose feeding alone.
Anyone witnessed this sort of thing before or have any explanation?
Malcolm
The goose mirrored every move that the swan made, following it around, never more than three or four feet away.
I had never seen this behaviour before, and in trying to explain it I could only come up with two theories.
One, the big white goose mistook another big white bird for its own kind, although I thought this unlikely. Even if it did, why would it follow it so closely?
The only other thing I could think of is that the goose had somehow become imprinted on the swan after hatching, which would explain its cygnet-like behaviour.
I can't believe it was just some sort of coincidence. We watched them for almost ten minutes and the goose's behaviour didn't change. Also, just a short way upstream, there was another white, domestic-type goose feeding alone.
Anyone witnessed this sort of thing before or have any explanation?
Malcolm
