wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/18/84)
I just ran across one of the strangest ads I've ever read; it is in a magazine for lawn care professionals (which a local library receives but discards each month; I pick it up for a neighbor who is a gardener) called Weeds, Trees & Turf. This ad is on pg. 42 of the October issue. It is an ad for swan decoys or replicas, called "Sentinel Swans", which are advertised to "Keep the Geese Away"; they are supposed to ward off or deter Canada Geese. Now, I like both geese and swans. I'd like to see lots of them around everywhere (well, outside, I guess...). So I'm not too sympathetic with the aims of people who want to scare geese away. (They give various reasons in the ad, seemingly related to maintenance problems caused by goose droppings and shed feathers.) Anyway, the point of all this is: why would the sight of swans deter or intimidate Canada Geese? (And would the sight of geese inhibit swans, in the same way?) I suppose they occupy similar ecological niches, so they compete in some fashion. Do swans habitually attack geese? What's the explanation here? St. Francis would never have approved of all this interspecies hostility... Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA