# Stupid or smart?



## swedeole (May 21, 2007)

While laying in the blinds waiting for birds, we always have this discussion.

Are snow geese stupid, or are they smart?

I tend to think they're stupid, and here's why.

You can hammer opening day Canadas here in northern MN. They're just dumber than a bag of hammers. I'm sure it's no different where you're at. Mallards? Same thing. And we all know opening day ringnecks and bluebills are beyond stupid. But you give those same birds a couple weeks of the general waterfowl season and good luck killing many - they're just too smart.

Come late season for geese and mallards we'll put out 100-200 fullbodies, and unless you're on the "X" or shooting fresh migrants from Canada it can be tough. Those same giant canadas we were killing by the truckload in September will skirt your spread at 100 yards, even with perfect calling.

Now you take snow geese. These birds have been hunted non-stop up and down the flyway for 7 straight months - but yet it's still possible to kill them, and sometimes in great numbers. They've seen 1,000 decoy spreads, but still they'll come in and take a gander. No way a Canada does that - they're just too smart. Once they get shot at once or twice, they're done.

Maybe there's fewer people decoying snows than I assume, but I just think they're a bit stupider than your average goose.

Thoughts?


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

Juvie snow geese are stupid. Anything over a year old is the smartest bird on the planet. Mainly because of the numbers factor. You may get a few dumb juvies out of a flock to break into the decoys. But very times a season do you set up a big flock of 500 plus down in the decoys.

Would you set up on only a field of leading edge birds that number into 200 birds total? No that would be suicide, but 200 canadas in any field is easy money for the most part.

Duck is all about getting hidden well and be right where they want to be. Snow geese on the other hand. You can have everything perfect and not shoot one. The very best hunters on this board will tell you atleast once a year they go home with one, two, or no birds at all.

Cant remember a time when I went out Canada goose hunting or after ducks and didnt get atleast a couple.


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## DonkeyCart (Mar 1, 2005)

/\........... :lol: right.

When Canadas ACTUALLY migrate they are the dumbest things ever in a new area. Snows are smart and hover and glide at 100 yads above your spread. Canadas just bomb right in and land. Fat and lazy and just want to eat.


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## marshman (Jul 8, 2005)

I don't agree at all, with all do respect of course. I think the deal with the giants is the fact that they spend their entire lives in a small area, they know the terrain like the back of their webbed feet! They nest on my marsh and the week before early season opens they are outta there. They know that the shooting is going to start. Some of those birds are pretty smart. I think if you had local snows it would be VERY tough to get some. I have to give snows credit, the way they will hang out there 100 yards and hover to check you out seems like the brain is in overdrive to me. There is also 6 times more light geese than Canada's. They stay in huge flocks, and if you're set up in the general area, well concealed,your going to get some and it may seem easy. I think it would be a different story if the population was 1-1.5 million.


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## flight cancled (Aug 28, 2007)

i think that they are a stupid bird when by itself but the big groups and so many eye picking out imperfections makes them smart. just my :2cents:


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## Feather Freeks (Jan 21, 2008)

snow geese are ten times smarter than a canada in my opinion, and mallards too. Maybe it's because a snow goose has twice the brain capacity of a canada.


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## swedeole (May 21, 2007)

Good points.

But after 2 months of hunting the locals up here, good luck getting a flock of 200 Canadas into shotgun range - much less a flock of 1,000+. They won't even look at you.

Snows? Get enough white and blue on the ground and they'll always come in for at least a look. Whether or not they finish is another thing.....

Considering the hunting pressure these birds face for 7 straight months, it's amazing that we can shoot any at all - and even more so when you have those great days and put 30, 50 or 100 adult birds on the ground.

I think their extreme desire to flock is their undoing - they just can't resist piling into more of their own kind.


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## Horker23 (Mar 2, 2006)

swedeole said:


> Good points.
> 
> Snows? Get enough white and blue on the ground and they'll always come in for at least a look. Whether or not they finish is another thing.....


I think they do that more than darks becasue of the NUMBERS! Like everyone one is saying snows love numbers. The more birds they can be with the safer they feel!


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

swedeole said:


> Good points.
> 
> But after 2 months of hunting the locals up here, good luck getting a flock of 200 Canadas into shotgun range - much less a flock of 1,000+. They won't even look at you.
> 
> ...


Both sides bring up good points, but I have eaten crow a hell of alot more times goin after snows than after canadas. And I have never seen canadas come to a spread and hover at 100+ yds and then just fly away. If you think its such a stupid bird, man i want to hunt with you, I run 60 dozen Sillosocks and 14 dozen full boides and a dozen ss fliers and I am ready to just leave the damn things setup in a field becuase sometimes its a bust of a hunt. Like shootem said, one two or zero birds and 1500 decoys on the ground, yeah not a very stupid bird in my book.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

The other thing you have to look at for your pressured geese in Minnesota. 4 geese on the ground is a two man limit and thus a success for a hunter. Whereas with snows if you go out with two guys and shot 7, you are thinking of what you did wrong.

They are completely different as far as intelligence goes though. I think a canada has more brain capacity, but a snow just gets so much repetition with their mental conditioning that they are in fact "smarter". Could you imagine being one goose in a flock of 10,000 coming off of squaw creek at the beginning of March. Seeing at least 10 or 15 spreads every morning on your way out to feed? Canadas might see one spread running traffic then one on the "x". A snow goose just gets it pounded into their head more.

But I have seen both do really stupid things and both do really smart things. It is really tough to compare the intelligence of two different species of animals.


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## dkcaller14 (Nov 29, 2006)

I would say snows are smarter then canadas

I have called canadas in without decoys, good luck getting a snow to do that.

If snows were as stupid as many claim they are then why would we buy thousands of decoys to even stand a chance of decoying them, let alone getting them to come into shooting range.

I agree with who said killing two canada's per guy is a successful day but killing anything under 5 snows per guy we are wondering what was wrong.


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

I also forgot to put this into the equation, If Snows are so stupid, then why do we have a spring conservation season for an overpopulation.......

Hands down its much easier to bag 5 honkers than 5 snows and blues....


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## dkcaller14 (Nov 29, 2006)

cgreeny said:


> I also forgot to put this into the equation, If Snows are so stupid, then why do we have a spring conservation season for an overpopulation.......


I was getting ready to ask the same thing. I wouldn't mind a conservation season for canada's :beer:


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## goosehunter21 (May 18, 2004)

This is one of the most unintelligent threads Ive ever seen :eyeroll:


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

goosehunter21 said:


> This is one of the most unintelligent threads Ive ever seen :eyeroll:


Agreed....


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Geese are not stupid they are creatures of habit, when something is working they continue doing it until it stops working. As in feeding grounds, migration, etc...


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## sx2hunter (Feb 18, 2009)

i 100 percent disagree, snows are they smartest waterfowl ive hunted and u say that once cans get shot at like more than once there gone, well ive seen canadas that are dam near domesticated during the season those things are stupid, ive never seen a snow goose that u can basically walk up to. snows just like the numbers makes em feel safer


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Its all relative.

IMO dark geese are semi-retarded and only for shooting practice until the real geese get here (the white ones).

A three man limit in ND, 15 birds, of dark geese, is a great hunt. But, 15 snows, although good, is far from a limit, and far from great.

15 dark geese, makes up a higher precentage of the overall population than 15 snow geese.

If there were 5-7 million canada geese, you would most likely kill more for the simple fact as there are more out there.

Its all relative.

Ill also say, anyone that thinks snow geese are easier to hunt than darks hasnt hunted snow geese very long.


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