At Humber, protecting our wildlife and their habitats is a commitment that we take very seriously. If you’ve had lunch at the staff lounge at North Campus recently you may have seen a mother goose laid her eggs by our bee hives. The eggs hatched recently and it seemed as though the bees, and mother goose and baby goslings were not getting along well. So, we notified Toronto Wildlife Centre and our bee keepers, who helped us to move the goslings and mother goose safely off the roof. The mother goose and her goslings are at the Toronto Wildlife Centre to ensure they are healthy before we hope to return them to the Arboretum. To prevent this situation in the future, we will be covering the planters, which are next to the hives so that the geese don’t settle there as it is not the most comfortable environment for neither them nor the bees. This will allow the bees to continue to pollinate and make honey and the geese to roam and rest safely in the Arboretum without having to worry about sharing the space.

The United Nations published a report last week emphasizing the need to protect our wildlife and their habitats, given a worsening decline in our Earth’s biodiversity. The UN report finds that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, more than ever before in human history. In the case of mother goose and the bees, our help was necessary to ensure a safe habitat for both the bees and the geese to thrive, which helps maintain their local population and overall biodiversity. As springtime brings about new life, we must make sure we are doing all that we can to preserve the natural life we have on campus and in the world.

Thank you to all the staff who reported this incident last week, and reacted appropriately to the issue.

If you have any questions or concerns about the geese and their well-being, please contact lindsay.walker@humber.ca.