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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about barnacle geese. For more awesome animal facts, be sure to subscribe! Elephant Hennessy requested these birds, so let’s get learning! Barnacle geese get their name because until the eighteenth century people actually believed they come from goose barnacles attached to ships at sea. Humans believed this because they could never find barnacle goose nests. It makes sense people back then weren’t able to find barnacle goose nests because barnacle geese don’t breed where they spend their winters. Barnacle geese migrate from their winter homes in Europe and make their way to arctic breeding grounds that range from Russia to Greenland. Their migration coincides with spring and the melting of snow in Arctic regions. As the snow melts, Arctic plants begin to flourish, and this boom in available food is timed with the hatching of barnacle geese babies who have to feed themselves as soon as they hatch. See, barnacle geese don’t stay in the nest for very long after hatching. Their parents nest in areas, such as cliff sides, that keep them protected from predators. Barnacle geese are eaten by polar bears, peregrine falcons, and arctic foxes, so that protection is great... until it’s time to leave. For the nests located on cliff sides, there’s only one way out for the developing babies, and, by the time they need to leave the nest, they have not developed flight feathers which means they have take a leap of faith. Mom, who has been incubating the eggs for almost a month, and Dad who has been protecting Mom and the nest during the entire incubation period, fly to the bottom of the cliff and beckon their children to follow. Once out of the nest, and after surviving the exit, the chicks are vulnerable to predators, but they have Mom and Dad to take care of them until the next breeding season starts.

It takes about two to three years for a barnacle goose to find a mate of its own. Males will approach females with head wagging and feather waving, and if the female responds with interest, he’ll shoo away any other bachelor’s vying for her affections. The two will stay mated for life, and often perform this head waggling each year to strength their bonds. There’s really no telling the two apart, either, because barnacle geese don’t display sexual dimorphism. The males and females look identical. On average they’re 24 inches (61 centimeters) long, 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) in weight, and have a 54 inch (137 centimeters) wingspan, and even though they might look somewhat similar to the well-known Canada goose, barnacle geese don’t have any brown in their feathers. What’s interesting, though, is that it’s thought there may have once been a population of barnacle geese who spent part of their lives in Canada, though that hasn’t been confirmed. Every once in awhile barnacle geese do show up on the North American continent, but this is an exception and not a rule.

In the wild, barnacle geese can live to be older than 20. Some farmers consider them pests because they’ll flock in fields, eat agricultural products, and even cause large amounts of damage with their poop. I mean, if you think about it, while they’re flying they have to poop, and there have been cases that their literal droppings have made crops unusable. Back when they were thought to come from barnacles, people considered them acceptable to consume during Lent (a time people must usually abstain from eating meat) because the birds were not considered to be “of the flesh” due to their… interesting… origins.

For more facts on barnacle geese, check out the links in the description. Had you heard of these birds before watching this video? Let us know in the comments! Give a thumbs up for geese, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!