The Doose? Duck/Goose hybrid? (1 Viewer)

[TomBolger]

I was walking along a lakeside path near my house earlier today, and I passed a gaggle of Canadian Geese. There are always geese there, so I took no special notice. I looked out into the water, and one goose caught my eye. Its head was different. It looked like a duck's head. Soon it stared to fly, and when its legs broke water, I saw that they were orange and had huge feet, like a duck! Later I reteurned here with my camera, and got a very good look at it, and some pretty good pictures. I am not very educated in the study of birds, but I did fairly extencive research on the topic, and I looked at pictures of basically ever species of known geese, and nothing seemed to match, or even come close. What I am wondering is if it is possible for Canadian Geese to interbreed in the wild with any ducks (based on where I am, probably Mallard Ducks) and if so, if it is common. I just want to know if I've made a discovery or if I'm wasting my time. If you can shed any light at all on this subject, please make a post.

Thanks!

P.S. I have a 40 second video of the Doose in action, and am willing to email it to any person interested.

 

[Chris Oates]

I was walking along a lakeside path near my house earlier today, and I passed a gaggle of Canadian Geese. There are always geese there, so I took no special notice. I looked out into the water, and one goose caught my eye. Its head was different. It looked like a duck's head. Soon it stared to fly, and when its legs broke water, I saw that they were orange and had huge feet, like a duck! Later I reteurned here with my camera, and got a very good look at it, and some pretty good pictures. I am not very educated in the study of birds, but I did fairly extencive research on the topic, and I looked at pictures of basically ever species of known geese, and nothing seemed to match, or even come close. What I am wondering is if it is possible for Canadian Geese to interbreed in the wild with any ducks (based on where I am, probably Mallard Ducks) and if so, if it is common. I just want to know if I've made a discovery or if I'm wasting my time. If you can shed any light at all on this subject, please make a post.

Thanks!

P.S. I have a 40 second video of the Doose in action, and am willing to email it to any person interested.

I'm pretty dumb regards geese but we have some like that in South west England - Canada/Greylag hybrids.

 

[London Birder]

looks very similar to Greylag x Canada hybrids I see daily

 

[TomBolger]

This may be true...

I have taken the advice of the people who replied to this, and researched the Graylag/Canada Goose hybrid, and they look identical. It's safe to say that this is, in fact, a hybrid of a Canada Goose and a Greylag Goose. But this raises another question. What would a Greylag Goose be doing in Northern New Jersey. They live only in Eastern Europe, as in Britain, United Kindom, ect. So now the thread can be about how in the world a Graylag/Canada goose ended up in New Jersey. Go at it, bird enthusiasts!

 

[Chris Oates]

I have taken the advice of the people who replied to this, and researched the Graylag/Canada Goose hybrid, and they look identical. It's safe to say that this is, in fact, a hybrid of a Canada Goose and a Greylag Goose. But this raises another question. What would a Greylag Goose be doing in Northern New Jersey. They live only in Eastern Europe, as in Britain, United Kindom, ect. So now the thread can be about how in the world a Graylag/Canada goose ended up in New Jersey. Go at it, bird enthusiasts!

That's an interesting question - in England we can expect all sorts of vagrant birds due to local weather systems blowing birds in from Africa or Russia and the jet stream blowing birds from the U.S. - birds returning to the U.S. is possible.
Canada geese (if they migrate at all) are north south birds and could go from England to Iceland to Greenland to Canada to the U.S. - they can fly a thousand miles in a day.
Why a hybrid should feel driven to do that I don't know - the ones here are browsing the same grass year after year.

 

[TomBolger]

So the question remains, why would a Greylag Goose come to the US, especially if they don't even migrate? It makes no sence. Also, are the hybrids fertile or sterile? I know that mules are sterile, along with ligers and tigons (hybrids between tigers and lions, ligers can be enourmous, as in 1,200 lbs) but will this hybrid be sterile? If so, that means that there was a Greylag Goose here very recently, because it would not be able to keep the genetics from a Greylag alive in the goose community. If not, and it is fertile, then it will likely spread it's greylag genes all over the goose pouplation in the next generations and who knows what that will do to the existing goose population, which is already a problem. Anyway, please provide any additional imput you can.

 

[LordPomposity]

Greylag Geese are common in barnyards in North America--I see escaped ones pretty often. As for fertility, hybrid birds often tend to be fertile. "Lawrence's" and "Brewster's" warblers are, and I think most duck hybrids are as well. Correct me if I'm wrong on the last point.

 

[TomBolger]

Well aside from the verification of these facts, I'd say this case is pretty much solved. So correct anything thats wrong or tell me something I don't know.

Thanks for the help!