Canada goose

Canada goose Temporal range: Pleistocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
At Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge
Call of Canada geese on Brownsea Island, Dorset, March 1966
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Branta
Species:	B. canadensis
Binomial name
Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
B. c. occidentalis B. c. fulva B. c. parvipes B. c. moffitti B. c. maxima B. c. interior B. c. canadensis
Canada goose distribution:   Summer range (native)   Year-round range (native)   Wintering range (native)   Summer range (introduced)   Year-round range (introduced)   Wintering range (introduced)   Summer range (cackling goose)
Synonyms
Anas canadensis Linnaeus, 1758

The Canada goose (Branta canadensis) is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is occasionally found during migration across the Atlantic in northern Europe. It has been introduced to France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.^[2] Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory; often found on or close to fresh water, the Canada goose is also common in brackish marshes, estuaries, and lagoons.

Extremely adept at living in human-altered areas, Canada geese have established breeding colonies in urban and cultivated habitats, which provide food and few natural predators. The success of this common park species has led to it often being considered a pest species because of its excrement, its depredation of crops, its noise, its aggressive territorial behavior toward both humans and other animals, and its habit of stalking and begging for food, the latter a result of humans disobeying artificial feeding policies toward wild animals.