If only I could take a gander at my old friends
Feeling down... pining goose with just his own ref lection for company
THE festive season can be a lonely time of year, especially when you’ve lost loved ones.
But this forlorn goose, whose two lifelong companions recently died, appears to have struck on a novel solution to finding company: gazing at his own reflection in the shiny paintwork of cars.
Before his pals passed away, the three geese were a popular attraction at a garden centre in East Sussex, where they had been together for 15 years.
But this bird has not been same since his companions died of old age earlier this year, according to Courtenay Luscombe, who owns Ferring Nurseries near Worthing.
The bereft goose stares at his reflection in the car doors of bemused visitors, apparently believing that he is with a fellow goose.
‘We don’t know whether his mourning is sweet or sad,’ said Mr Luscombe, who has never named the goose.
‘He is intelligent and is clearly very forlorn at having lost his pals. It has left us a bit perplexed. He just stands there all day staring at himself.
‘At first we didn’t realise why and then it dawned on us that it was probably because he’s lonely.
‘He prefers black cars as they show his reflection more clearly than other colours. He had known the two female geese all his life and he was always the leader of the pack.
‘You sometimes hear about lifelong partners dying within weeks of each other due to a broken heart. Perhaps his depression is similar.’
Once he is let out of his wooden hutch at 7.30am and fed by garden centre staff, the goose makes his way to the car park where he stands by the cars before he is locked up again in his hutch at 4pm to keep him safe from foxes.
Mr Luscombe added: ‘We’re not quite sure what to do now. We could try to find him some more friends but there is a danger he will not like them and that wouldn’t be any good.
‘We just want him to be happy. If someone wanted to take him to live with their geese, then we could be open to the idea – although we don’t want him becoming someone’s Christmas dinner!’
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust aviculture warden Phoebe Vaughan said: ‘It would be reasonable to observe that a bereaved goose might enjoy looking at his own reflection so as not to appear alone – geese are sociable creatures.’