Outdoors

15-year-old Canada goose expected to recover in time for flight south

15-year-old goose Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge/Facebook

A sickly Canada goose was taken in by the humane society in Guelph last week. The middle-aged bird was suffering from internal parasites and underweight and was eventually moved to the Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Jarvis, Ontario.

The bird was “not feeling too great” when she was first taken to the refuge, but volunteers are optimistic.

“We hope that she will make a full recovery and will be able to migrate,” Chantal Theijn, who works at the refuge, told the CBC.

The refuge staff realized the bird was banded when they took her in. They were able to determine that she was 15 years old once they reached out to the federal department of Environment and Climate Change.

According to the department’s bird banding office, the goose was banded in 2002 and was labeled as “too young to fly” at the time.

Canada geese can live to be 25 years old in the wild, so this little lady still has many years left to make the flight south.

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