Cackling Goose Facts, Figures and Description

Latin: Branta hutchinsii

Average length: M 22-30 inches

Average weight: M 3.4-5.7 lbs., F 2.1-5.3 lbs

Description: Cackling geese take after Canada geese in appearance. Male Cackling geese are marginally bigger than females, with both genders having long, dark necks with white chinstraps. The breast, guts and flanks run in coloring from a light ash to a dim chocolate tan, either mixing into the dark neck or being differentiated from it by a wide office. The back and scapulars are darker tan, the backside is blackish and the tail is blackish-tan with a U-molded white band on the posterior. The bill, legs and feet are dark. The call is a "sounding" sound, sharp cry or unique squeaking "chuckle.

Cackling geese are a little bodied group of four subspecies, comprising of the Aleutian, Cackling, Taverner's and Richardson's (Hutchins's) geese. Cackling geese have relatively more diminutive, stubbier, triangular-molded bills than their Canada goose partners. David Sibley has created an instructive Web page that can help in subspecies ID for chortling geese. Additionally, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has an accommodating field guide (PDF) to recognize chortling and Canada geese.

Breeding: Cackling geese have a tendency to home in more northern living spaces than Canada geese. Female Cackling geese lay 2-8 eggs with a normal brooding time of 25-28 days.

Migrating and Wintering: Aleutian, Cackling and Taverner's geese basically winter west of the mainland separation, while Richardson's (Hutchins's) geese winter predominantly in southern Central Flyway states.

Population: Down to less than 500 winged creatures in the 1970s, the Aleutian cackling goose is an example of overcoming adversity in waterfowl administration. Populace appraisals focused around perceptions of neck-united Aleutian cackling geese throughout winter 2006-'07 was 118,700, 13 percent more noteworthy than the past year. Gauges for Aleutian clucking geese expanded a normal of 14 percent for every year from 1997-2006. The 2008 fall evaluation of Cackling geese was 173,400 geese. The assessment for Taverner's clucking geese (a pooled evaluation of Taverner's and lesser Canada geese) was 74,400 winged animals for 2007. The Richardson's (Hutchins's) goose subspecies is thought to be expanding, with populace gauges more noteworthy than 680,000 in 2007. 

From a harvest administration viewpoint, cackling geese are generally included in season lengths and sack limits with other white-cheeked geese. Seekers ought to make sure to check particular state regulations for chasing limitations.

Karen Foil

The newly recognized Cackling Goose is a smaller version of the Canada Goose. Formerly considered the smallest subspecies of one variable species, recent work on genetic differences found the four smallest forms to be very different. These four races are now recognized as a full species: the Cackling Goose. It breeds farther northward and westward than does the Canada Goose.

Goose

Geese are waterfowl belonging to the tribe Anserini of the family Anatidae. This tribe comprises the genera Anser (the grey geese), Branta (the black geese) and Chen (the white geese). A number of other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their name. More distantly related members of the Anatidae family are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller.

Cackling Goose

The Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii), formerly known as Lesser or Small Canada Goose in North America, belongs to the genus Branta of black geese, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species.

The black head and neck with white "chinstrap" distinguish this goose from all except the larger Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) and the similarly sized Barnacle Goose (B. leucopsis). There are up to 5 subspecies of Cackling Goose, of varying sizes and plumage details. Some are hard to distinguish from the Canada Goose, with which the Cackling Goose was long assumed to form one species, and the name Lesser Canada Goose properly denotes the subspecies parvipes of the Canada Goose. The smallest 1.4 kg-Cackling Geese (B. h. minima) are much smaller than any Canada Goose, but the subspecies B. h. hutchinsii, at up to 3 kg, grows to the same size as some Canada Geese. The distinctness of the extinct population of the Komandorski and Kuril Islands B. h. asiatica is controversial. The Barnacle Goose differs in having a black breast and grey, rather than brownish, body plumage.