{"id":23450,"date":"2025-11-10T09:50:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?p=23450"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:50:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:50:49","slug":"boswells-historical-wild-goose-chase-published-across-postmedia-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/2025\/boswells-historical-wild-goose-chase-published-across-postmedia-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Boswell\u2019s historical \u2018Wild Goose Chase\u2019 published across Postmedia network"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Canada

Love them or loathe them, Canada geese are here to stay. [Photo \u00a9 Tracy Sanford\/Postmedia News]<\/p><\/div>Journalism professor Randy Boswell\u2019s deep dive into the history of Canada geese<\/a> was published Nov. 8 across the Postmedia News network, including the Ottawa Citizen<\/em>, National Post<\/em> and Vancouver Sun<\/em>. The story, the latest in Postmedia\u2019s \u201cLong Reads\u201d series of in-depth features and investigative articles, explores how the giant Canada goose subspecies \u2014 Branta canadensis maxima<\/em> \u2014 has become a much-loathed, overabundant urban pest in 21st<\/sup>-century North America after being prematurely declared extinct in the mid-20th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Boswell recounts the 1962 discovery of a single, surviving flock of giant Canadas on a Minnesota lake by American waterfowl biologist Dr. Harold Hanson. After tracing the geese to their Manitoba breeding grounds, Hanson and other wildlife management experts in the U.S. and Canada initiated a population recovery effort that was hailed at the time as one of the greatest success stories in the history of conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say there was widespread excitement in North America over the rediscovery of the giant Canada goose is seriously understating the maxima<\/em> fervour sparked by Hanson\u2019s 1962 achievement,\u201d Boswell writes. \u201cOver the next quarter-century, there was a concerted push by countless conservation groups, hunting clubs, local governments, state agencies, provincial ministries, research institutes, private landowners and others to ensure that the lost-and-found subspecies would rebound spectacularly from the brink of extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it did \u2014 exponentially: \u201cIt was becoming clear as early as the mid-1970s that a potential problem was developing.\u201d The giant Canadas adapted so well to the landscaped green spaces of modern cities, where food was plentiful and predators absent, that they reproduced prolifically and, in many instances, stopped migrating. These \u201cresident\u201d geese are the \u201cnuisance\u201d populations now plaguing urban centres across the continent, including Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The story features insights from long-time Carleton biology professor Michael Runtz, one of Canada\u2019s best-known naturalists, whose recent retirement from teaching will be spotlighted at the university Nov. 13 with a special lecture and celebration<\/a> honouring his legacy as an educator, author and wildlife advocate.<\/p>\n

Summing up the state of the Canada goose problem, Runtz says in the story: \u201cThe animals are the innocent participants in this. They never asked to be bred and nurtured. And so, we can only blame ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton Jouurnalism professor Randy Boswell profiles the Canada goose, our giant honking, pooping bird that’s running afoul of cities across North America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,36],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBoswell\u2019s historical \u2018Wild Goose Chase\u2019 published across Postmedia network | School of Journalism and Communication<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Carleton Jouurnalism professor Randy Boswell profiles the Canada goose, our giant honking, pooping bird that's running afoul of cities across North America.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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