A pair of Canada Geese. The University of Waterloo is trying new ways to fight the geese problem on campus, including using dog patrols and asking students to tweet in nest locations.

 

It’s spring. That means longer days, warmer weather, and for Canada Geese, it’s nesting season.

The Canada Geese that have taken up residence at the University of Waterloo are famous, in part because they don’t hesistate to defend their nesting areas from perceived intruders.

Alex Harris and Molson the dog, pictured above, patrol UWaterloo twice a day to chase away Canada Geese. Photo:warriordad.smugmug.com/

Alex Harris is no stranger to hissing, flapping, angry geese. Harris is the man behind the University of Waterloo’s Geese Police and along with Molson, a border collie-golden retriever cross, patrols the university campus twice a day along a five-kilometre path. Canada Geese are notorious at the university because the large number of people and buildings offer protection from natural predators, allowing the geese to thrive. 

The daily patrols are part of Harris’ undergraduate thesis project for his Geography and Environmental Management Honours degree. By summer, Harris wants to have an accurate picture of how Molson affects geese nesting habits along the designated path, in order to “determine exactly how bad the problem is and how long it will take to fix it and balance the ecosystem out,” he writes on his website.

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