They waddle through parks and leave their droppings behind: Wild geese have been causing problems in many large cities for a long time. In Cologne, eggs are now to be taken from the nests in order to reduce the stock. Thanks to this measure, the city of Düsseldorf is seeing initial successes.
Cologne/Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - The city of Cologne wants to make a new attempt next year to get the wild geese problem in the parks under control. A spokeswoman said on request that there should be a "laying management" at the "hotspots" from February 1st. This means that all but one of the eggs are removed from the nests. A similar concept has existed in Düsseldorf for some time.
However, the majority of geese do not breed in urban green spaces, explained the Cologne spokeswoman. Rather, the main problem is that citizens feed the birds illegally, so that the animals settle there. Therefore, employees of the public order office should pay more attention to violations of the feeding ban and take action against them.
Wild geese have been a problem in Cologne and other large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia for years because they leave large quantities of their droppings there. Hunting them in inner-city facilities is forbidden in Cologne.
The city had commissioned an expert report in order to then develop measures for stock reduction with the help of the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV) NRW. During a count, biologists had sighted an average of 600 Canada geese and 70 Egyptian geese in 20 water bodies in Cologne.
The city of Düsseldorf has been running a "lay management" for five years - with success, as the garden, cemetery and forestry office recently announced: At the beginning of the measures in 2017, 1364 Canada geese were still counted in the city area, in 2022 there were only 1168. In 2022, around 800 eggs were taken from nests. According to the information, the proportion of young birds in the population was eleven percent, in 2017 it was 18 percent.
"Despite all efforts, it can be said that there will continue to be a large number of geese in the Düsseldorf parks and that there will also be pollution," said the garden office. Areas that are particularly badly affected are cleaned more frequently.
