13/10/2026
The story a single image can tell.
In this image you can clearly see the male Egyptian goose, and several of his sub adult offspring, nervously looking back, at me, the supposed danger. While they are walking straight towards, in our perception, real danger.
Let me explain this misperception through my own observation. Over the course of my life, spent mostly in the wilderness, I've often seen birds large and small, come critically close to crocodiles, unaccosted. Yet if you read any scientific material on crocodiles, it states that they are ultimately opportunistic and would anything alive, including birds. You will also read that crocodiles can even digest bone, making them the ultimate predator, yet they can not digest feathers. Only specialised larvae of the fish moth family can achieve this. So, if they do eat a bird, what happens with the feathers? Well they usually regurgitate undigested matter, but.
I think, that birds as large as Egyptian geese, and storks and heron who share the crocodiles' environment, have too many feathers, relative to the meal size, for crocs to deal with intestinally. Why do I say this?
Firstly, I've observed crocodiles for countless hours over decades and seen them attack, and sometimes eat almost everything, but never birds.
Secondly, as a youngsters, I've often shot ducks and geese near water bodies with crocodiles in it. And when one falls in the water, often a croc would take it, only to release it again a minute later.
Thus, the geese are right to be scared of me, and not the crocodile. Especially seeing that Egyptian geese display unusual parental care, and would therefore not allow the goslings to face any immediate threat.
