The other day I met an unique goose who had two bodyguards, the wildest temper, a matching swagger, and was an albino. I named the dude
the Lieutenant after Al Pacino’s hyper-angry character in
Scent of a woman. The Lieutenant chased other geese aggressively and made them run for their lives. He was either very bitter or was just having a
'my bestfriend eloped with my girlfriend' sort of a day. It was fun to watch and photograph him from a mere distance of six feet although his frayed temper and loud honks were enough to trickle my adrenaline. At one point, after successfully kicking arse of two wimpy geese, the Lieutenant returned to his bodyguards and gave them a piece of his mind for staying back and being total slacks. The poor bodyguards knew better and did not yell back.
I have been panning the internet (including scientific literature) for the past couple of days trying to learn about the albino Canada goose. Funny, there is nothing related to be found although I stumbled on published information about strategies to introduce contraceptive pills to these birds in overpopulated areas! We humans are freakishly control-freaks, no? Anyway, my rusty zoology wonders if this is the result of a mutation in the bio-synthesis pathway of melanin, the brown/black pigment found in our skin and also in birds. Similar mutations result in human albino phenotypes. However, the Lieutenant has few colored feathers which make me wonder if he is more
leucistic than an albino. Thoughts?
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