Social factors and parasite burden in hand-raised greylag goslings

Supervisors: Kurt Kotrschal & Isabella Scheiber

I hand raised greylag geese (Anser anser) in a remote area, in which Konrad Lorenz had already raised his geese. During three months, I lived outside with the geese all day without running water, but electricity on sunny days. This was a truly wonderful experience both personally and scientifically. Besides being part of this semi-wild flock, I participated in playback experiments to study true individual recognition and collected faecal samples to study the parasitic burden of geese, varying in their degree of social integration. Further, I conducted behavioural observations and personality tests on goslings.

© Manon Schweinfurth