The other day, Liena from Ditmas Park Blog was nice enough to post my entry about geese returning to Prospect park - filling a vacuum, as it were. The comments have been educational, revealing, and sometimes horrific. There are a couple of people who equate geese with rats as far as being a pest. I object. Even though I did refer to the geese's nazi-like behavior in invading and taking over the lake.
Here are some ways to tell the difference between rats and geese:
Rats have a symbiotic relationship with humans. If the humans disappeared, the rats would, if not disappear, certainly diminish in numbers. The geese are independent. If the humans disappeared, the geese would barely notice, except for the park ones who wait to be fed. They'd have to go looking for their own food.
Rats live in our houses, sewers, basements, stores, restaurants, schools, factories, anywhere they can sneak in. They have been know to bite and injure babies and small children - maybe even larger ones. Geese stay out of our buildings. They just like our beautiful lakes and meadows. they tend to stay from us (except when molting, when they can't fly away.).
And then there's the disease. Rats carry typhus, hantavirus, salmonella, leptospirosis, and meningitis. All terribly illnesses, causing things like diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and death. Remember your history? Bubonic plague and black death? Brought to us by rats, and the fleas that they bring with them. Rats have caused untold death and damage in human history - they are not just innocent wild animals living in our midst.
Geese do carry a few parasites in their feces. Mostly cryptosporidium and gardia. They cause mostly upset stomachs. Beaver in the Adirondacks are big carriers of gardia - it's why you can't sip from a clear babbling stream in the mountains any more. And the amount of cryptosporidium passed through geese is insignificent compared to the vast amounts produced by runoff from factory farms and the pigs and chickens they raise. Avoid eating goose poop and drinking lake water in the park and you should be fine. And use those wipes on your or your kids' hands after they've put them in lake water.
So stop comparing geese and rats. It's nonsense.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Actually sipping from a clear bubbling stream in the mountains is not so bad. As long as it is fast moving water and pretty close to the source, the chances that it carries giardia are not that much greater than the chances of getting giardia from many municipal water supplies. Its sitting water from ponds and lakes or slow moving water in larger streams that is more of a problem.
ReplyDelete