A new study shows that Nanaimo's Canada geese population is growing, fuelled by milder winters, as the city considers culling the birds some consider a nuisance.
Stewart Pearce, a researcher for the Vancouver Island University Canada Goose Project, has been monitoring the population's migration habits since May 2016.
Last year Pearce tagged and tracked 500 of the birds, which resulted in some surprising findings.
"The population around Nanaimo is a lot more dynamic than we all thought," he said. "We're finding that there's actually quite a small core population of somewhere in the neighbourhood of two to three hundred geese in Nanaimo itself."
Pearce's research has also found an additional 300 geese move into the Harbour City during the summer, with another 1,800 moving in during the winter months.
He says a warming climate, plentiful food sources and open water could be behind the winter migration.
"The geese have become habituated to either not migrating or not going as far south, necessarily," said Pearce.
With a rising number of birds comes growing concern in Nanaimo. City council has already been toying with the idea of a cull to solve what's become a messy problem.
"The impacts are going to be amplified by the numbers," said VIU biology professor Eric Demers. "This can be from grazing in sports fields, cemeteries, wherever there's grass. The more geese you have, the more goose waste you get."
In a statement, the city said it will be using Pearce's findings to develop a management strategy.
That strategy won't include relocation, with the city saying it's just not effective enough.
Close to 500 Canada geese were killed last year during a controversial cull in Parksville, where they were causing damage to local ecosystems.
That city is considering another population reduction for next year.
Experts say Canada geese were brought to Vancouver Island for hunting in the 70s and 80s.
