DURBAN’S residential areas are alive with the sights and sounds of suburban wildlife. One increasingly common visitor to people’s gardens at this time of the year is the Egyptian goose, whose population numbers have been steadily growing over the past few years.
An Egyptian geese family has been spotted at the Westville Swimming Pool and at Lahee Park Swimming Pool for the past few years and most people seem to enjoy having them around and swimming with them.
CROW’s Director, Paul Hoyte said, “unlike some of our local wildlife whose existence is being severely threatened by human development and urbanization, our ever expanding cities and suburbs are proving an ideal breeding site for Egyptian geese.
“In addition to a warm climate, Egyptian geese look for access to a fresh water source and an area with plentiful food. So be it your swimming pool, an eco-estate or a golf course, our Egyptian Geese are currently spoilt for choice when it comes to sites to rear their young,” explained Hoyte.
He said unfortunately, cases of human and wildlife conflict between Egyptian geese, humans and their domestic pets have inevitably increased too over the past few years.
“Six years ago, we dealt with only a handful of cases involving injured, orphaned and displaced Egyptian geese.”
Last year, CROW admitted 598 Egyptian geese.
“Approximately 378 of these cases were admitted during our last baby season, September 2015 to March 2016.
“For the month of September last year, we admitted 108 Egyptian geese alone,” said Hoyte.
