Geese And Their Poop A Messy Situation At CSU Stanislaus
TURLOCK (CBS13) — They're angry, they're aggressive and they leave behind land mines everywhere they go.
The geese — and their poop — have become a messy situation on the campus of California State University, Stanislaus. Walking around campus is almost like a game of hop scotch to avoid the droppings.
"They're not always easy to spot because they're the same color as the grass," said Cal State Stanislaus spokesman Dave Tonelli of the poop.
But not only do you have to watch your stop, you also have to watch your back.
"They do tend to charge at you," Tonelli said.
Lurking in the shadows in the day, coming out full force in the mornings and evenings, the growing flock of Canada geese, about 500 of them, have made the campus their permanent home.
"The numbers are just growing and growing and growing," Tonelli said.
And apparently, they're territorial.
"You'll kind of like look at them and they'll just be like 'reeh!'" student Dayna Azebedo said, making her best goose growl impersonation.
The geese look for large bodies of water to land in during migration, and they found about a half dozen of them on the Turlock campus.
"They're supposed to come here for the winter and then leave, and they've liked it so much that they've stayed," Tonelli said.
Next month, the university plans to bring in dogs to chase off the birds and use boats to scare them.
"Even if we don't thin out the population, if we can help from it getting bigger," Tonelli said.
Not only are the geese confrontational, their piles of poop pose a health risk to people, and there's a lot of it, Tonelli said.
"They let out probably 1 to 3 pounds of droppings every day per goose," Tonelli said.
That's as much as 1,500 pounds of geese feces dropped on the campus a day.
So, yes, geese going No. 2 is Becoming a No. 1 priority on campus.
