TOLEDO, Ohio — Six goslings were saved from starvation atop a downtown Toledo rooftop Tuesday night.
The mother goose laid eggs on an inviting rooftop patio nearby the Maumee River on Water Street. With a couple of trees and grass, the greenery likely seemed like an appropriate nesting place for the family of waterfowls, Laura Zitzelberger, co-founder of wildlife conservation nonprofit Nature's Nursery, said.
Despite the building brushing up against northwest Ohio's prized river, the goslings couldn't drink from it. The mother and father could fly to food and water sources, but wouldn't leave their babies behind.
Since the goslings wouldn't be able to fly for multiple months, the whole family would have been stranded.
While ledges bordering the rooftop stopped the goslings from falling three stories, and nosy critters like raccoons would be prevented from stealing the eggs, if the goslings couldn't get to water they wouldn't live long.
"The babies would have starved," Zitzelberger, who has been with Nature's Nursery for about 33 years, said.
In a Facebook post Friday morning, Nature's Nursery said two women named Sandy and Sue called the organization for assistance.
Then, Nature's Nursery jumped into action to save the feathered family atop the building housing the Sea School of Toledo and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.
First, they called Marianne Streb and Brian Lang from Outdoor Inspirations, a Holland-based landscaping company that had voluntarily assisted with waterfowl rescues before.
The landscapers and a couple of nursery volunteers surveyed the situation and formed a plan, which is "important to do in these situations because you often only get one chance to get it right," the post reads.
They attempted to catch the two parents and six goslings, but the mother flew off and returned once the job was done. The rescuers were able to safely move the babies and father, referred to as a gander, to a more suitable wetland-like area across the river by the Glass City Metropark building.
The new home features safely-sloped sides the goslings can descend for easy access to water.
These eight geese are not the first, nor will they be the last, animals to endanger themselves in urban environments, Zitzelberger said.
Wild animals such as raccoons, coyotes and opossums are not uncommon in cities, she said.
While the geese's home was safe from predators, the parents didn't have the foresight to account for accessible water and food for the goslings.
Zitzelberger said there is a way to prevent geese and ducks from nesting in unsuitable locations like courtyards and rooftops, though once a nest is made and eggs are laid, they are under federal protection.
To discourage them before the nest is made, Zitzelberger said to chase them away.
"Just annoy them out of the area until they no longer think it's a safe spot," she said.
The wildlife rehab group gets close to 200 calls and admits nearly 50 animals some days, she said.
How each case is handled varies. If a family of geese is nesting on ground level in an area surrounded by traffic, intervention may not be the best option. Urging the geese out of the location may lead them directly into traffic and cause an accident, so the nursery may have to "let them figure it out on their own," she said.
Zitzelberger said the nursery often can't keep track of where rescued animals end up. If an animal has distinctive features they may get calls months or years later from people who see the animal, but for this family of geese, there's no trail of webbed feet to follow.
"They just look like every other goose family out there," she said.
"We let them go off and on their way. Now they're probably integrated with other geese downtown," she said.
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