Oregon Public Broadcasting

Wildlife managers in eastern Washington suspect Canada geese may be moving away from their country homes into cities.

This month, biologists are capturing geese, putting identification markers on them, then letting them go. Inland Northwest Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports they hope to track the animals' migratory patterns.

In a grassy field on the Gonzaga University campus in Spokane, Washington Fish and Wildlife biologists and volunteers have trapped about 15 Canada geese. Two men in a makeshift cage hand the struggling birds to volunteers who walk them to a truck.

There Don Kraege uses pliers to fit metal bands over their lower legs.

Don Kraege: "We're taking the age and the sex. That helps us figure out where the juveniles and the first-year birds go versus the older birds. That's a young one."

Kraege lowers the goose to the ground and it scampers down a bank to the Spokane River.

Hunters who shoot these birds are asked to report the numbers on the band. State officials say they heard from hunters as far away as northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Waterfowl specialist Mikel Moore says, for the last 10 years, she and other waterfowl biologists have found fewer geese in traditional rural nesting places. She says the problem is serious enough that, two years ago, the state cut short its annual fall goose hunt east of the Cascades.

She says, since then, biologists have been tagging geese to find out where they're going.

Mikel Moore: "We should be able to detect if birds are moving from traditional breeding areas into urban areas, plus we can determine if our harvest rates are at a sustainable level."

Moore says biologists aren't sure yet why more geese are becoming urban creatures. They suspect some have figured out that living in the city means they'll be fed well and won't be hunted.