Cape Town - One woman’s morning walk with her dogs left her with cuts, bruises and a concussion after she was attacked by an Egyptian goose. She also lost several hours of memory and was admitted to the emergency room as a result.
The woman, who can only be identified as Rebecca, was walking along Molteno Road in Oranjezicht when the goose charged at her and hit her in the face.
“I sustained cuts and bruises on my face, hands and forearms. No doubt the latter were defence wounds,” said Rebecca.
“I also fell backwards and hit my head on the pavement. I suffered a concussion and required stitches to the back of my head.”
A large number of Egyptian geese have settled in the area, around De Waal Park and the Molteno reservoir. Oranjezicht residents and De Waal Park frequenters confirmed that many pairs of geese in the area are new parents to goslings.
As far as Rebecca recalls, she was attacked by a single goose.
“I only saw one goose [and] seeing a goose running at me is the last thing I remember. I was coming up to a corner in a leafy area of the neighbourhood so there easily could have been another around the corner nearby,” said Rebecca.
Rebecca has no recollection of what happened for some hours thereafter but according to her partner, she had called him and told him that she had been attacked by a goose and couldn’t walk. He then came by and found her sitting on a curb, where he got her and her dogs, and took her to the ER.
“I have no memory of this. My last last memory is of the goose running at me. I lost about three hours of memory,” said Rebecca.
Jon Friedman, who heads up the wildlife department at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, said that physical attacks by Egyptian geese are rare.
“Geese can be incredibly territorial, doing all that they can to keep other geese and intruders, including humans, out of their territory,” said Friedman.
“They are also very protective of their young and right now is their peak breeding season and there are lots of baby geese (goslings) around.”
While the SPCA does not intervene in cases of so-called "nuisance animals" where a wild animal is expressing its natural or human-taught behaviour in an environment it has freely chosen for itself, Friedman said that residents would have to contact the provincial nature conservation authority to intervene.
In the Western Cape, that authority is CapeNature to intervene.
“The SPCA will only assist in instances where a wild animal is sick, injured or busy dying, or in the case of abandoned young,” said Friedman.
According to Arjun Amar, an avian conservation biologist and associate professor at the University of Cape Town, humans and Egyptian geese can interact harmoniously.
“Most of the time they are interacting harmoniously. But clearly when these types of incidents happen they can be quite serious,” said Amar.
Egyptian Geese, which were considered sacred to the Ancient Egyptians, are native to sub-Saharan Africa and the Nile Valley in Egypt.
“They have also spread to other areas around the world, e.g. European cities, where they are regarded as invasive pests,” said Amar.
While Amar said that the population of Egyptian geese in Cape Town is unknown, he confirmed that their numbers are increasing.
“They are able to exploit the abundance of irrigated lawns like sports fields and are certainly doing very well. They can be described as 'urban exploiters'.”
Egyptian geese are unable to build their own nests, but they take over nests of other birds, sometimes stealing (usurping) these nests, or using them after they have been finished with.
Research has shown that in Cape Town, Egyptian geese have taken over the nests of black sparrowhawks, as there is little that the latter can do to defend their nests against the geese, however, blacks sparrowhawks continue to thrive.
“We have also done research that has shown that by manipulating the fear that the geese experience with trained hawks it is possible to reduce their numbers,” said Amar.
“This was done on golf courses where they are a problem - pooing on the greens etc.”
The City of Cape Town’s recreation and parks department said that this was the first time such a matter reached its attention but that the incident was not reported to them.
Rebecca was in a lot of pain after the attack and as a result of the concussion, but she is recovering. She is concerned about the safety of children and others in the area.
“It might have been my dogs that triggered them and, for all I know, barked at them… but I don’t remember. My dogs were unharmed. It is clearly my head they went for.”
Friedman strongly condemned the use of violence towards Egyptian geese or any other animal, and instead offered some advice for when coming into contact with Egyptian geese.
- Watch for a warning: Geese will always give ample warning before they actually get physical. There will be much open wing-flapping, mock charging and a lot of loud calling, honking and hissing.
- Keep your eyes on your attacker: never turn your back towards an angry goose and don't close your eyes. An angry goose will more than likely back down if it sees that you aren't scared of it (you are, after-all, much bigger than it is).
- Keep calm and keep quiet: shouting, screaming or running at a goose could signal to it that you are looking for a fight and could cause the animal to become more defensive than it already is.
- And most importantly of all - don't feed wild animals - especially geese. By feeding them, not only might you be feeding them the wrong sort of food, e.g. bread, you may also be teaching them not to fear humans while associating humans with food, which never ends well for any wild animal. When you stop feeding them, they can become demanding of more food and pursue you to get whatever tasty snacks you may be hiding from them.