Why don the Canada geese migrate anymore?
A. Canada geese that nest in Massachusetts are descendants of geese once kept in captivity to be used as live decoys. These birds were released when the use of live decoys was outlawed in 1935. Having been bred in captivity for several generations, these birds never developed a migration tradition which passed down from generation to generation in wild birds. Hence, those geese never learned to migrate, nor did their young. There were only a few geese originally and caused few problems but as the population expanded, doubling every few years, by the 1970s people began complaining about nuisance geese. So it’s not that they don’t migrate anymore, they never did, but with over 30,000 geese in the state now, people are certainly more aware of them. For more information, please see our Canada goose information .
