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SALT LAKE CITY — A mother goose could have picked a better place to raise her young. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources had to rescue the bird and her six goslings from the roof of a charter school in the Salt Lake Valley last week.
DWR technician Kayson Shepherd said the agency received a call from the school, after staff found the nest on the roof. The baby birds were unable to get down from the building, meaning they were without food or water.
Shepherd was dispatched to round up the fuzzy chicks.
"We actually just found a soccer net from the school and used that to catch the mom," Shepherd said. "The babies don't really go too far. They kind of scatter but they're not too hard to catch."
Shepherd took the geese to DWR's office in Springville, figuring it would provide a better habitat.
"There's a little pond and stuff out back," Shepherd said. "I didn't know if they'd stick around or not, but she did."
Last Friday, Shepherd recovered three more goslings that had been abandoned on the roof of another building. He introduced them to the first group of Canada Geese.
"Kind of got them chirping and put them by the mom of these other six. She came over when she heard them chirping and so she took over those other three. She's the momma to all of them now, I guess," Shepherd said.
The mother goose wasn't done yet.
"We went out this morning and there was another one there with them, so she has ten now," Shepherd said, adding it's not clear just where the additional gosling came from. "They're cute little things, little furballs."
DWR posted photos of the geese to Twitter on Wednesday, saying they're thriving in their new home.
