Anthea,
Lorenz worked on wild Greylag Geese, as well as domestic geese. His
work on imprinting with domestic geese caused some embarrassing
moments. Some of his subjects became imprinted on himself, which was
all well and cute, with the goslings and young geese following him
everywhere. When the matured, it became a different matter, as the
maturing males began regarding him as a suitable mate and an ardent
full-grown Gander is hard to dissuade. Lorenz also experimented with
imprinting geese with inanimate objects as well. This caused some
interesting situations. One group had been imprinted on a baby pram
and would follow it wherever it was pushed. When the group matured, it
was decided that it would be a good idea to release into a park in
Vienna. Unfortunately though, the park selected was a favourite spot
for mothers and nannies to give their young charges a spot of fresh
air - by wheeling them around in prams. What happened when the young
ganders reached full maturity? I will leave that to your imagination. T
Carl Clifford
On 12/03/2009, at 4:08 PM, wrote:
I recall reading somewhere in Konrad Lorenz's works that male
homosexual pairings are
quite common in geese (forget species but I think observed in Iceland
and northern
tundra conditions). However these often end up as trios when a female
falls for one of
the pair and somehow insinuates herself into the situation. The
interesting thing is
that trios (male + male+female)are much more successful than male-
female pairs when it
comes to rearing young. Three to share brooding and care of young in a
world full of
predators.
Domestic geese are usually set up with one gander and two or three
geese, but they are
not really polygamous, and one surplus goose can end up much pecked
and bullied.
Anthea Fleming
I forgot to mention in my earlier email that the following book
examines the
evolution of homosexual behaviour in birds and mammals:
Sommer, V. & Vasey, P.L. (eds) (2006). Homosexual Behaviour in
Animals: An
Evolutionary Perspective (Cambridge UP, Cambridge).
The problem is that the book's purchase price in Australia is $275.
So those
interested in reading the collection of papers would best be advised
to find
a library copy.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
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