# If geese stopped flying



## Creator

If geese were to abandon flight and grow larger than their extant cousins, will their beaks shape allow them to crop grasses as efficiently as mammals? Or will the shape and structure change? If they have to change what will it look like?


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## Lith

Do they eat grasses, or do they eat worms and bugs?


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## Creator

Grasses, geese seem to be the only birds that graze like cows. But I was just wondering if they were to grow as large as cows will their beaks still function or will it have to make some modifications?

I am writing a fic about birds evolving into strange bizarre forms that will blow the mind. I have collected a lot of info on the birds in the french polynesia. And some of the ground dwelling herbivores that dominate the island are descended from Canadian Geese who often wreck havoc in grass like out of control lawn mowers I have heard.


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## Fake Vencar

Well if geese stopped flying, they will soon become extinct which would mean their beaks will not have time to change. 

If, for some strange reason, they didn't become extinct, I would expect them to become smaller not larger. Much easier to hide from predators and they wouldn't have to expend their resources too much


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## Creator

Ok if these geese are isolated on some island which mammals have not reached?

It happened once in Hawaii, the only living relative of those giant geese is the Nene Goose which is the state bird of Hawaii.

But the Giant Geeses skulls are more for tree browsing than grass. 

Anyone who is an expert in tortoises? I am thinking maybe they adopt there beaks shapes.


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## chrispenycate

If the geese go on wandering about in swamps and eating nice soft waterweeds, their present bill is a good compromise, It can handle grass, give you a nasty bite ("peck" isn't quite the descrition I'd use, having experienced it) and is good for aquatic plants. 
So, cassowary, emu, dodo, ostrich - all variations on the same beak shape.
But hadrosaurus seemed to do well enough with a bill - at least fossil remains suggest there were plenty of them. Mind you, I don't think anyone's sure what they ate.
Will making them bigger make them less aggressive? Because standard, don't understand how they take off at all let alone migrate those distances, modern day ones do tend to be a trifle excessive on this front.


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## Lith

And they may not change beak shape at all. They eat grass now, and if they were flightless, they'd eat... grass. 

I'd recommend just looking at the fossil record if you want crazy stuff for a story.


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## Creator

OK the problem I encountered so far is that most grass eating birds are as small as chickens.

I don't know if ostriches can graze efficiently. do they bite grass like mammalian incisors or pluck them?
Anyone who have contact with ostriches?






Here is a photo of the serrations of goose "teeth" But I want to ask if my giant goose those serrations won't the grass slip too easily from between the beak?

Or maybe I am thinking of adding a radula.


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## Pyan

Creator said:


> But I want to ask if my giant goose those serrations won't the grass slip too easily from between the beak?


Surely as the beak gets bigger, the serrations will stay the same _size_, just increase in _number_?


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## Ursa major

I'd guess that they would increase in number if increasing "tooth" size stopped them from grazing properly.


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## Creator

Ok since maybe their beak shapes maybe similar

But maybe the giant geese have tongues like Gastropods that catch the grass in the beak and scrap the grass.


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## michelhudson

If geese stops fly then the main benefit is to airport staff..It creates lots of problems to flight to take off and landing....and the other thing is the safety of garden.


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## michelhudson

Geese control has become a major problem in US and other countries. So that I am in search for effective solution to geese control.  If geese stopped flaying then we save our precious time which we waste behind away them from our home and our working place. If geese stopped flaying then lake front viewed property owner easily away them from his home and garden.


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## michelhudson

One more suggestion...

If geese stopped flaying then I think better to Put wire around the ponds about 10" off the ground to keep them away.


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