CHRIS GLORIOSO PIX 11 NEWS

10:58 p.m. EDT, August 17, 2010
PROSPECT PARK, NY (WPIX)—
A strange thing is happening on the shores of Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake. Five weeks after federal wildlife agents slaughtered 400 Canada geese, new birds are moving in. The rapid influx of avian newcomers has Brooklynites wondering how effective the government's goose killing campaign has been.

Neighbor and environmentalist Anne-Katrin Titze says she has counted 107 new geese since USDA biologists euthanized the old colony five weeks ago.

"The geese that were living here kept the others out. It is prime real estate."

The aim of the geese extermination project was to thin out flocks of birds that sometimes collide with passenger planes, but the rapid emergence of new Canada geese suggests the new birds had to fly, and therefore clog up air traffic, in order to move in to the Prospect Park ecosystem.

"Prospect Park is a big lake and the other geese kept the others out," said Titze. "They were territorial and now the new geese see an empty lot and now they move in."

The USDA, which carried out the goose cull, says it's not unusual for new geese to repopulate a region where birds were recently killed. Spokesperson Carol Bannerman stresses the goal is to thin out the flock, not erradicate it.

"Before there were 400 birds at Prospect Park that flew. Now there are 100 birds at Prospect Park that fly. I think you can say the risk [to airplanes] is less."