The goose with the golden campus parking spots.

Last week, a student at Medicine Hat College noticed a nefarious presence in the southeastern Alberta school’s parking lot; a hissing, gawking angry male goose. He wasn’t alone. Nestled in the parking lot’s wood chip-filled median was a brooding female goose. School administrators did what any good Canadian might — they set up a massive barricade in a bid to keep students and cars alike away until her eggs hatched. They’re still waiting. The Post’s Jen Gerson spoke with Melinda Arthur, the college’s director of facility operations.

Q How did you come to have a goose in your parking lot?

A You’d probably have to ask the goose why she chose there. We do have a lot of geese on campus. We’re on 110 acres of land and only about 10% of that is taken up by buildings. They do look to nest here in the spring, so we have been on alert, trying to keep them off the porticoes of entrances because male geese can become quite aggressive in protecting the nest once eggs are laid. But we weren’t really watching the parking lot because who thought a goose would want to nest in the middle of a parking lot island?

Q So you just showed up for work one day and there was a goose taking over the middle of your parking lot?

A A student was — not attacked by a goose, but observed an aggressive goose in the parking lot and, looking closer, also a brooding mother goose. He came to our information desk and advised college staff: ‘‘You know, you’ve got a nesting goose in the parking lot.’’ So our security staff did go out to confirm and, yes, there is a nesting goose and there is a gander that is a little bit aggressive. It was at that point we decided to give them a wide berth and barricade the goose around the nest. That way we could warn people that they might get a goose upset, and we could give her privacy.

Q Why didn’t you just kick the goose out of the parking lot?

A Well, we do want to provide a place that is nature-friendly. And we’re not interested in upsetting the natural order of things. Not that we have a firm policy in practice; we’ll deter a goose from nesting somewhere but we won’t actually kick her out.

Q Once she’s settled in there, that’s her spot? A That’s her spot. I’m not an expert, but it’s also my understanding that there are rules around upsetting them and if you don’t have a proper permit, it is illegal to do so.

Q How much space is this goose taking up?

A She’s got about eight stalls.

Q So, she’s not a subcompact goose, she’s an SUV goose?

A Oh yeah, she’s taking up a big spot.

Q And how long is this goose going to take up this spot?

A Again, I’m not an expert in these things, but I did a Google search because I was curious and a site said the Canadian goose incubation period is about 28 days and there’s a nesting period of up to 50 days, so we’ve got her here for a little bit longer.

Q Is this the first time you’ve ever had a goose in an inappropriate spot?

A I’m aware of another situation where we had a goose that decided to build a nest on the roof of an office annex and we had a male goose causing problems for people so we established a snow fence barrier to warn people that if they did come too close, they may be subject to an aggressive goose attack.

Q Wait, who was attacked by an aggressive goose on an office roof ?

A Well I’m not aware of anybody being attacked per se, the goose was just warning and hissing aggressively. And the male was on the ground.

Q So the male was just harassing people going into the building.

A That’s right.

Q I hear goose is really tasty, you know.

A I heard that as well.