Utah wildlife staff out on a wild goose chase

SALT LAKE CITY — Going on a wild goose chase, state wildlife staff are out Thursday catching and tracking hundreds of migratory geese on the Great Salt Lake to better know what's happening with Utah's goose population.

Zipping through the Great Salt Lake, state wildlife staff are out looking for geese.

"So far this week we've banded 1,350," said Rich Hansen, banding coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Hansen's crew is out on the water all week, rounding up hundreds of Canadian geese before they regrow their flight feathers to better know the migratory patterns and manage the hunting season.

"We can look at the numbers and see how many birds are harvested every year and make sure that we don't see a sharp increase that affects the overall population," Hansen said.

Each one has to be caught, caged and tagged to track the population, but first you have to find them.

On the water to get the geese, you got to have an eagle eye.

"They like to dive, and try and swim and get away. On that driver's seat, I'm standing up pretty high and I can see those birds swimming under the water," said Chad Cranney, Wetland Manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

For those out front trying to find them, it's a reward.

"There's not a lot of jobs out there where the first thing you do in the morning is on the front of an airboat grabbing geese off the front of it," said Mason Phipps, wildlife technician for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Once tagged, they said it's rewarding to see where they end up.

"Our birds will go anywhere from Saskatchewan all the way down to southern California and everywhere in between," Hansen said.

Staff will conduct this same round-up around the same time every year. The information on each one goes into an online database. This week, they reported finding a tagged goose that was last seen in 2005.

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