# Which Goose is Smarter?



## JNedved (Jan 24, 2008)

*Which Goose is smarter?*​
Snow Goose6780.72%Candian Goose1619.28%


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## JNedved (Jan 24, 2008)

Ok me and my friends are always arguing about which goose is smarter Canadian or snow?


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## bud69652 (Feb 6, 2006)

snow goose without a doubt.


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

JNedved said:


> Ok me and my friends are always arguing about which goose is smarter Canadian or snow?


I would have to say a Canadian* is smarter than a snow goose, even tho I dont like some of their hockey teams


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

I think both are pretty wild. I don't know about smart per se but each have their own thing going on
Snows are usually higher than honkers and there are more of them to see something out of place in the deke's. They are more gregarious too I think so they hang together more than honkers.

So I'd say that snows are harder to bag on a regular basis.

Good luck,
Dan


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

Well in Colorado the Canadian Geese are very smart. They know when the season starts and they start flying high and when it is over they start flying low again. But i am sure that's how they are in every state. I really think that it is a poor argument to say that one is smarter then the other because during the right time of year they are both dumb. One thing is they are completely different birds one is a city goose (Cans) in my eyes and the other (Snowbirds) is not. The most expensive fields to lease in CO are the ones right out side the city because all the Cans pack in on the city parks and are always safe. :eyeroll: . So then you have snowbirds and they are what i call rural birds they stick to the agriculture during the migration and they go south in a hurry not staging in many places for long periods of time, while Cans will migrate depending on weather. So i guess they are both smart but completely different species in my eyes. So I am done rambling and have to get back to work


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

So do these Canadian geese need passports or what


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## justund223 (Aug 28, 2006)

JNedved said:


> Ok me and my friends are always arguing about which goose is smarter Canadian or snow?


i heard the schools aren't that good up in canada, so thats why the canadas migrate down to the states, to get an education :roll:


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> thats why the canadas migrate down to the states, to get an education


It must be working cause they are smart enough to come back. :lol:


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## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

A Canadian is smarter.

Then a Snow.

Then a Canadien

And then a Honker

:stirpot: :koolaid:


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

I've met a few canadians that don't have the common sense the geese have. :beer:


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## fargodawg (Sep 20, 2005)

USSapper said:


> I would have to say a Canadian* is smarter than a snow goose, even tho I dont like some of their hockey teams


 :lol: thank you... now I can leave work with a smile


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## born2kill (Mar 4, 2008)

i think the canadian goose is smarter one-on-one. snows only live so long because they fly with sno many. but i think if canadians where that great of numbers they would be the same way as a snow


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## littlecatches (Mar 7, 2008)

I would have to go with snows are smarter. While hunting honkers when you see the singles out flying, most of the time it seems we can get those to come into us. While you see a single snow it seems its harder to get them to come in. maybe its just me but one on one i would say snows are smarter.


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## goosehunternd (Mar 10, 2006)

:withstupid: born 2 kill must not have read the posts'

I will say I have shot alot more canada geese than I have snows


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

I dont know, snows in big numbers gives them a big advantage.

I do know on many occasions ive had that one lone adult snow circle and circle and never come in. Rarely do we not get a lone honker to suck right in.

Snows are definatly spookier and edgier. But is this due to smarts, or conditioning due to being chased for seven months of the year? I say conditioning.


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## SDwaterfowler (Mar 2, 2006)

barebackjack said:


> But is this due to smarts, or conditioning due to being chased for seven months of the year? I say conditioning.


I agree 100%. :beer:


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## goosebusters2 (Jan 13, 2006)

Snows might be smarter than these canadians

To me an individual canada is smarter than a individual snow, but snows have the strength in numbers thing going for them. A big flock of snows is very smart and hard to fool


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## Bustin Lips (Mar 16, 2008)

depends which canadian you speak of. french canadians, semi smart, sask residents, well i'll leave it at that. so i would have to say snow goose.


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## honkerslayr (Dec 14, 2006)

IMO i think the snow is smarter only because the season for them is constanly open in states. it's like a cycle one state closes then another opens. unlike canadian season it is mostly open in the dall or winter in most states anyways.

i say this because the snows see a lot more spreads than canadians-therefore they are more educated. But like previous posts said snows travel in bigger flock which is also an advantage because there are more eyes in the flock to detect somethin wrong with the situation. Canadas in the spring are dumb they basically forget about the hunting because they havent been hunted forever thats why the early season locals are decently easy to decoy. But when the first shot is fired at them in the early season they know perfeclt well what is going on for awhile and patterns get tougher.


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## nowski10 (Jan 27, 2006)

It is tough to say cause snows and canadas are both smart.......it depends on the situation. I agree with GB2, When snows are traveling in large #'s then I believe they are smarter. But if you had a loner snow and canada, the canada would be smarter. Thats my :2cents:

Nick


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## SDwaterfowler (Mar 2, 2006)

nowski10 said:


> But if you had a loner snow and canada, the canada would be smarter.


Not even close, IMO. How many single snows can you fool into decoy range? How about canadas? Single canadas are 10 times easier to fool than single snows. I would take a flock of 5000 snows and hope for 1 dumb bird to drop out rather than try to pull a single snow. In my limited experience, single snows are almost impossible to decoy. Now with canadas, I would take a single any day. Single canadas are fairly easy to decoy.


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## ND trapper (Nov 14, 2006)

A lot of good points being made. I would like to add that on many occasions I have snow geese that were landing in a field just behind a hill so that they were not visible from the surrounding area when in reality all they were doing was setting themselves up to be slaughtered by jump shooters. I don't see Canadian geese doing this. They seem to pick the highest spot in a field to sit. Like mentioned before I think that the longer seasons on snow geese have evolved the snows into becoming even smarter. The same is true for Canadian geese as well IMO. The first few early Canadian goose seasons it seemed that if you found a field the birds were using than it was a sure fire thing that they would be there the next day which isn't the case anymore. As for which one is smarter I think that they are both smart in their own ways.


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## flight cancled (Aug 28, 2007)

definetally the canada. i think the only reason snows are so hard to get is that they are usually in big numbers. more eyes to pick out things.


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## ValleyCityHunter2008 (Jan 13, 2008)

Ok let's think about the question this way:
During your hunt you have one two snows flying into your decoys 
Than an hour later you have a two canadians flying into your decoys,

Which bird do you think is more likely to land?
Which bird do you think will more likely flare away?

I think the two snows are more likely to land.
The canadians are more likely to flare away.

Snow geese just are not smart when they fly in groups of two.
I think canadians are more intelageant and they don't even get as much hunting pressure as the snows do.

But this is my opinion.

:beer: :sniper:


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

Wow, I am simply amazed with all of the responses to this. Spend a few more years in the goose blind. Hopefully you guy's will learn more about waterfowl in a few years.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I think it's changing. I still think the snow goose is the hardest to pursue, but I've been seeing smarter and smarter resident canadas in recent years. Some days they both leave you alone.


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## bigquackattack (Sep 18, 2006)

Lets think about it a moment.

Eating yourself to death on your home grounds. Putting your self at risk by migrating thousands of miles every year. Living on the tundra. Putting yourself at risk to ambush and not learning to compensate.

Living on a golf course, feeding and breeding at will. Hanging in a park or swimming on a pond in a subdivision. This is evolution and the Canadas are learning to be survivors.

BTW if you are seeing a lot of Canadians while snow goose hunting, quit playing O' Canada on your E-caller.


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## Triple B (Mar 9, 2004)

mallard said:


> Wow, I am simply amazed with all of the responses to this. Spend a few more years in the goose blind. Hopefully you guy's will learn more about waterfowl in a few years.


thats kind of what I was thinking?

by saying which is smarter, you are leaving a wide window of interpretation to each individual. really the questions asked should be; which species is more wary? which is more habitual? then take into account life histories, ranges, and niches in each respective species. snows hang in bigger numbers. is this because they are smarter or more gregarious by nature? canada geese often feed and live in city parks and roost on city pond/lagoons? does this make them dumber? or are they taking advantage of a niche in nature that is more beneficial than "roughing it" like birds that make a small slough in the middle of knowhere?

as previously stated snow geese get harrassed for nine months a year, canada's not quite as many. resident and early season birds have more time to "get comfortable" with an area, with respect to their daily feeding and roosting activities. by the end of the season canada geese can be just as wary as their white counterparts. on the flip side, try decoying snow geese in august in the tundra. I'd bet money these birds would decoy like early season canada's.

that being said, in my experience canada geese are by far easier to pattern, and overall easier to decoy than snow geese. but is it because they are dumber? i don't think so, i think it is because of the way they live their everyday lives, we as hunters have better opprotunities and more advantages over them than we do with snow geese.


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## bandman (Feb 13, 2006)

Great thought out post Trip. :beer:


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

Lots of good points here. I think the snows are harder to hunt but I am not sure it's cause they are smarter. Dark geese seem to respond better to calling, even when they give your spread a fly-by you can coax them back in, sometimes they don't come back but you know what I mean. With the snows, one little mistake and they are 10 miles away before you can get out of the blind.

GB2: Have you ever seen the movie Strange Brew? The McKenzies are in it, EH :beer: :lol:


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## goosebusters2 (Jan 13, 2006)

headshot said:


> Lots of good points here. I think the snows are harder to hunt but I am not sure it's cause they are smarter. Dark geese seem to respond better to calling, even when they give your spread a fly-by you can coax them back in, sometimes they don't come back but you know what I mean. With the snows, one little mistake and they are 10 miles away before you can get out of the blind.
> 
> GB2: Have you ever seen the movie Strange Brew? The McKenzies are in it, EH :beer: :lol:


I have seen the movie, and I love it :beer:


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## kgpcr (Sep 2, 2006)

snows are constantly being hunted. they either get smart or dead. as for natural intelligence i would pick a honker. Snows are harder as to decoy them you need a huge spread. thats what they are attraced to wich maked it harder if you dont. canadas dont generaly travel in flocks that big so you dont need that big of a spread like to do for snows. with snows if you dont have a mega spread then they are just hard to decoy as they are a large flock bird. thats my opinion and worth every cent you paid for it!


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## Feather Freeks (Jan 21, 2008)

i think i heard somewhere that a snow goose has a considerably larger brain capacity then that of a canada, but i tried to find info about on the net, and i couldn't find anything. if anyone comes across anything let us know! ( even if it IS true that snows have a larger brain capacity, that doesn't mean they're neccessarily smarter, just means they have more brain to use, we don't know how MUCH of the brain they use either. ) it would be interesting to find out which one has a bigger brain though.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

deathrowcalls said:


> i think i heard somewhere that a snow goose has a considerably larger brain capacity then that of a canada, but i tried to find info about on the net, and i couldn't find anything. if anyone comes across anything let us know! ( even if it IS true that snows have a larger brain capacity, that doesn't mean they're neccessarily smarter, just means they have more brain to use, we don't know how MUCH of the brain they use either. ) it would be interesting to find out which one has a bigger brain though.


I heard this as well. Cant remember where though. They were equating this capacity to a shorter learning curve, better memory, and even the capability of "passing on" knowledge to offspring.

I also have heard of a place, somewhere up north, I think its called sas...katch...ewan.....or something like that, where the birds dont get chased by crazies in pickup trucks, or molested in every field they decide to land in. Ive heard the birds here settle down greatly making for much better decoying. Some may call it the promise land.


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