Background In European and North American cities geese are among the most common and most visible large herbivores. As such, their presence and behaviour often conflict with the desires of the human residents. Fouling, noise, aggression and health concerns are all cited as reasons that there are “too many”. Lethal control is often used for population management; however, this raises questions about whether this is a sustainable strategy to resolve the conflict between humans and geese when, paradoxically, it is humans that are responsible for creating the habitat and often providing the food and protection of geese at other times. We hypothesise that the landscaping of suburban parks can be improved to decrease its attractiveness to geese and to reduce the opportunity for conflict between geese and humans. Methods Using observations collected over five years from a botanic garden situated in suburban Belgium and data from the whole of Flanders in Belgium, we examined landscape features that attract geese. These included the presence of islands in lakes, the distance from water, barriers to level flight and the size of exploited areas. The birds studied were the tadornine goose Alopochen aegyptiaca (L. 1766) (Egyptian goose) and the anserine geese, Branta canadensis (L. 1758) (Canada goose), Anser anser (L. 1758) (greylag goose) and Branta leucopsis (Bechstein, 1803) (barnacle goose). Landscape modification is a known method for altering goose behaviour, but there is little information on the power of such methods with which to inform managers and planners. Results Our results demonstrate that lakes with islands attract more than twice as many anserine geese than lakes without islands, but make little difference to Egyptian geese. Furthermore, flight barriers between grazing areas and lakes are an effective deterrent to geese using an area for feeding. Keeping grazing areas small and surrounded by trees reduces their attractiveness to geese. Conclusion The results suggest that landscape design can be used successfully to reduce the number of geese and their conflict with humans. However, this approach has its limitations and would require humans to compromise on what they expect from their landscaped parks, such as open vistas, lakes, islands and closely cropped lawns.

中文翻译：

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鹅在郊区景观中的选址

背景 在欧洲和北美城市，鹅是最常见和最明显的大型食草动物之一。因此，它们的存在和行为常常与人类居民的愿望相冲突。污垢、噪音、攻击性和健康问题都被认为是“太多”的原因。致命控制通常用于人口管理；然而，这引发了一个问题，即这是否是解决人类与鹅之间冲突的可持续战略，自相矛盾的是，人类负责创造栖息地，并经常在其他时候为鹅提供食物和保护。我们假设可以改善郊区公园的景观以降低其对鹅的吸引力并减少鹅与人类之间发生冲突的机会。方法 利用从位于比利时郊区的一个植物园收集的五年多的观察结果和来自比利时整个佛兰德斯的数据，我们检查了吸引鹅的景观特征。这些包括湖泊中岛屿的存在、与水的距离、水平飞行的障碍和开发区域的大小。研究的鸟类是 tadornine goose Alopochen aegyptiaca (L. 1766) (Egyptian goose) 和 Anserine geese, Branta canadensis (L. 1758) (Canada goose), Anser anser (L. 1758) (greylag goose) 和 Branta leucopsis (贝希斯坦，1803 年）（藤壶鹅）。景观改造是一种已知的改变鹅行为的方法，但很少有关于这些方法的力量的信息可以告知管理者和规划者。结果我们的研究结果表明，有岛屿的湖泊吸引的雁鹅数量是没有岛屿的湖泊的两倍多，但对埃及鹅的影响不大。此外，放牧区和湖泊之间的飞行障碍是对使用该区域觅食的鹅的有效威慑。使放牧区保持较小并被树木包围会降低它们对鹅的吸引力。结论 结果表明，景观设计可以成功地用于减少鹅的数量及其与人类的冲突。然而，这种方法有其局限性，需要人类在他们对景观公园的期望上做出妥协，例如开阔的景观、湖泊、岛屿和修剪得很近的草坪。放牧区和湖泊之间的飞行障碍是对使用该区域觅食的鹅的有效威慑。使放牧区保持较小并被树木包围会降低它们对鹅的吸引力。结论 结果表明，景观设计可以成功地用于减少鹅的数量及其与人类的冲突。然而，这种方法有其局限性，需要人类在他们对景观公园的期望上做出妥协，例如开阔的景观、湖泊、岛屿和修剪得很近的草坪。放牧区和湖泊之间的飞行障碍是对使用该区域觅食的鹅的有效威慑。使放牧区保持较小并被树木包围会降低它们对鹅的吸引力。结论 结果表明，景观设计可以成功地用于减少鹅的数量及其与人类的冲突。然而，这种方法有其局限性，需要人类在他们对景观公园的期望上做出妥协，例如开阔的景观、湖泊、岛屿和修剪得很近的草坪。