Despite man’s cruel attempts to stop goose eggs from hatching in Prospect Park, four goslings broke out of their shells more than two weeks ago, and have been park celebrities ever since. But one of these miracle babies has gone missing, reports the Park Slope Patch. The goslings are down to three.
The Brooklyn Paper lays blame on “heavy weekend rains, illness or a predator.” “If they are injured or weak they sometimes get left behind; but they don’t last long in those cases,” a biologist told the paper. “It’s likely that a predator got it.” But the Patch blogger, wildlife rehabilitator Johanna Clearfield, points the finger at someone else: the Prospect Park Alliance.
After all, it’s the Alliance who contracted a company to cover goose eggs in oil to stop them from hatching.
There is a very strong possibility that the missing gosling was in some way deformed and/or mildly retarded as a result of the “egg addling” technique…If there is a heavy downpour or some other natural accident that removes the oil, the bird will continue to develop. There is, however, the risk that any bird born after receiving this treatment might be in some way deformed or slightly retarded. This may have been the case with our missing gosling.
The goose vanished despite the recent formation of a secret Goose Watch group, who pledged to watch the birds 24/7, so that federales couldn’t come in under cloak of night and spirit them away to their deaths again.
No word yet on Tupper Thomas‘ whereabouts when the gosling vanished.