Can someone please give a scientific explanation for this?

[ryan]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/momma-goose-asks-officer-help-213100012.html

Could it be some kind of evolved trait to seek humans when the mother does not have a solution?

 

[Wiploc]

Can someone please give a scientific explanation for this?

The goose was raised as a pet and then released in the park.

 

[beero1000]

People like to anthropomorphize animals? A cop embellished a story to get in the news for rescuing a gosling?

Not sure how that evolutionary pressure would work anyway. Until very recently, any wild goose that looked for a human's help would most likely end up in a dinner pot.

 

[Thomas II]

 

[J842P]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/momma-goose-asks-officer-help-213100012.html

Could it be some kind of evolved trait to seek humans when the mother does not have a solution?

Almost certainly not. Birds are smart, and they can learn. This is likely a reasoned approach based on experience, not an evolved tendency to seek out humans.

 

[skepticalbip]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/momma-goose-asks-officer-help-213100012.html

Could it be some kind of evolved trait to seek humans when the mother does not have a solution?

Almost certainly not. Birds are smart, and they can learn. This is likely a reasoned approach based on experience, not an evolved tendency to seek out humans.

Certainly, a nice tasty bird seeking out humans would not have been an evolutionary beneficial trait. Also I doubt that geese have the reasoning power to figure out that untangling twine from their gosling would require opposable thumbs, humans are an ape with opposable thumbs, so I should seek out one of those apes to help.

So I think you are right. Behavior based on learned experience sounds right. Humans had been helpful in the past with supplying food or other concerns beyond the goose's ability so humans became the go-to solution.

 

[ryan]

Not that I am clinging to my theory, but I think that the majority of the time humans would not need more food. When we mostly hunted, it was probably for sure bets rather than just these kinds of random occurrences.

We may have always had some sense of empathy for other animals.

 

[J842P]

Almost certainly not. Birds are smart, and they can learn. This is likely a reasoned approach based on experience, not an evolved tendency to seek out humans.

Certainly, a nice tasty bird seeking out humans would not have been an evolutionary beneficial trait. Also I doubt that geese have the reasoning power to figure out that untangling twine from their gosling would require opposable thumbs, humans are an ape with opposable thumbs, so I should seek out one of those apes to help.

So I think you are right. Behavior based on learned experience sounds right. Humans had been helpful in the past with supplying food or other concerns beyond the goose's ability so humans became the go-to solution.

Right, although I think you underestimate the bird's ability to reason. It might simply associate humans with the nets, and may have observed humans using nets and untangling them. Geese spend a lot of time by the water, where humans are often found using nets.

 

[J842P]

I recall seeing a case where an elephant was shot by poachers and new to seek out help from humans at a Wildlife reserve even though he had never been housed there, but had mated with other elephants that had.

http://www.unilad.co.uk/articles/el...on-arrow-seek-out-humans-to-save-their-lives/

 

[Valjean]

The bird was probably habituated to human presence -- living in a public park and all -- and didn't consider us dangerous. Se might even have been fed by humans. She'd also have observed that we seem to have remarkable powers to do amazing and inexplicable things.

As J842P pointed out, birds intelligence is underrated. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that a distraught mother might take a desperate gamble.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Not that I am clinging to my theory, but I think that the majority of the time humans would not need more food.

Just how much of human history do you think we've had a surplus of food on a regular basis?

And whatever that time is, how many generations of goose would that have affected?

And just how much evolving could any creature do in that many generations?

 

[ryan]

Not that I am clinging to my theory, but I think that the majority of the time humans would not need more food.

Just how much of human history do you think we've had a surplus of food on a regular basis?

And whatever that time is, how many generations of goose would that have affected?

And just how much evolving could any creature do in that many generations?

We had enough time and intelligence to domesticate dogs. Why couldn't Geese evolve by using us to evolve?

Look at any carnivore high on the food chain. They are not constantly hunting. Who knows what we did in the mean time.

 

[fromderinside]

We had enough time and intelligence to domesticate dogs. Why couldn't Geese evolve by using us to evolve?

Look at any carnivore high on the food chain. They are not constantly hunting. Who knows what we did in the mean time.

Watch the commercial: We have the meat (food)!!

Geese and ducks imprint on most anything that moves ferchrissake.

 

[skepticalbip]

Just how much of human history do you think we've had a surplus of food on a regular basis?

And whatever that time is, how many generations of goose would that have affected?

And just how much evolving could any creature do in that many generations?

We had enough time and intelligence to domesticate dogs. Why couldn't Geese evolve by using us to evolve?

Look at any carnivore high on the food chain. They are not constantly hunting. Who knows what we did in the mean time.

You do realize that geese are still being hunted don't you? If seeking humans were an inherited trait it wouldn't be so difficult for hunters to bag one. They are obviously intelligent enough to know that humans in public parks are not dangerous but to avoid humans in the wild. This is learned behavior.

 

[ryan]

We had enough time and intelligence to domesticate dogs. Why couldn't Geese evolve by using us to evolve?

Look at any carnivore high on the food chain. They are not constantly hunting. Who knows what we did in the mean time.

You do realize that geese are still being hunted don't you? If seeking humans were an inherited trait it wouldn't be so difficult for hunters to bag one. They are obviously intelligent enough to know that humans in public parks are not dangerous but to avoid humans in the wild. This is learned behavior.

Geese are usually shot out of the sky.

I am not really on one side or the other. It just shocks me to see a mother goose patiently watching the human help. I mean this just seems crazy.

 

[ryan]

We had enough time and intelligence to domesticate dogs. Why couldn't Geese evolve by using us to evolve?

Look at any carnivore high on the food chain. They are not constantly hunting. Who knows what we did in the mean time.

Watch the commercial: We have the meat (food)!!

Geese and ducks imprint on most anything that moves ferchrissake.

Okay, maybe it has seen this happen to a different mother goose and her gosling. Even then, what an intellect and memory!

 

[skepticalbip]

You do realize that geese are still being hunted don't you? If seeking humans were an inherited trait it wouldn't be so difficult for hunters to bag one. They are obviously intelligent enough to know that humans in public parks are not dangerous but to avoid humans in the wild. This is learned behavior.

Geese are usually shot out of the sky.

You are right. Hunters have to hide so the geese can't see them. They even put out decoys in an attempt to make the geese think it is safe so they will get close enough to shoot them. If geese were evolved with no fear of humans and to actually seek out humans, then the hunters could just stand out in the open with clubs and wait for the geese to walk up close enough.

I am not really on one side or the other. It just shocks me to see a mother goose patiently watching the human help. I mean this just seems crazy.

No argument. Birds are amazingly intelligent and they learn. Crows even more so than geese.

 

[Lion IRC]

Not that I am clinging to my theory, but I think that the majority of the time humans would not need more food. When we mostly hunted, it was probably for sure bets rather than just these kinds of random occurrences.

Right. And we don't eat every single animal we see.

We may have always had some sense of empathy for other animals.

And I think there is also a related argument to be made that animals instinctively/intuitively understand that humans do have dominion over them in a way that it may instill a certain willingness to trust.

 

[Lion IRC]

...I know they could, but they haven't killed me so far. Maybe there's hope.

It's the way many animals in a veterinary clinic seem to cooperate with the higher being that is trying to help.

 

[abaddon]

It just shocks me to see a mother goose patiently watching the human help. I mean this just seems crazy.

Okay, maybe it has seen this happen to a different mother goose and her gosling. Even then, what an intellect and memory!

So then it’s animal intelligence that surprises you?

There will be much more on that in the future. Asking for scientific explanations on that, at this time, is only asking for guesses.



The question being asked there is if humans can stop taking themselves as the measure of everything and thereby stop blocking out knowledge of the world with our anthropocentric bias. If we don’t do that then the correct answer to his question is No.