Geese

[peanut]

A couple years ago I was working and saw some geese walking across the road. It was a what i would assume to be the mother and about 6 little babies following her. Along comes a car, the driver did not even try to slow down to stop for them. The mother goose and I think 1 baby got run over. I was really P.O'd by this and I think if I had been in my car at that time, I would have chased them down and beat them to a bloody pulp. To this day I can not get that vision out of my head. It haunts me every day and I feel just as bad as I did that day. My question is, Would another goose take care of the rest of the little critters now that the mother was killed? Or do they just end up fending for themselves? Also are these animals capable of feeling the loss of the mother?

[wildwood]

Hi peanut. Sometimes if the goslings are very young - like at their first day - they may, by the tone of their peeping, be adopted by another mother goose (no pun intended) nearby who also has her own young. But more than likely they will get cold and expire, or worse, a dog/cat/fox will be attracted to the peeping and do their worst.

The chicks will not have any emotional feelings. All that matters to them at that age is food and warmth. Even adult geese do not have emotions as we do. This can clearly be viewed if one chick dies, the others, and the mother will walk all over it. The aggression shown by adults to protect their territory or brood is purely instinct driven.
The only feeling that can be called emotion is when they show aggression to protect their territory or brood. This is purely instinct driven.

[horselady]

A similar thing happened a couple of weeks ago, I was driving and saw the car in front slow down. As it came to my turn to negotiate whatever the obstacle was, I saw that a female duck had been run over and her neck was broken but she was alive and trying to get up, there were 2 dead babies and 4 live ones squeaking at the roadside. Whoever hit them must have known, so cruel. Another driver and me went to a house to get a box and pick up the babies and the man that lived in the house put the duck out of her misery.

[garner]

We see this all too often on the roads.its so sad and makes me so mad at the unfeeling way people behave.towards wildlife.And if you are a caring person it can stay on your mind for ages...so sad.

[Babz]

What a sad story, how can people be so cruel I wonder? I once saw a bus driver in a town centre deliberately run over a pigeon, he was crawling at a slow speed pulling away from a but stop and could have so easily waited for it to waddle out of the way . I mouthed to him "You b*s*a*d" and he just looked at me as though i was muck. For a long time afterwards when I went into town I could still see the poor bird squashed into the road, less and less until it was just a mark and then gone, but I've never forgotten his deliberate cruelty. i dread coming across something on the road that has been hit but is not dead, I don't think I could put it out of it's pain.