Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Goose
Summary
A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera Anser (the grey geese and white geese) and Branta (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their names. More distantly related members of the family Anatidae are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller.
The term "goose" may refer to such bird of either sex, but when paired with "gander", refers specifically to a female one (the latter referring to a male). Young birds before fledging are called goslings. The collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump.
The word "goose" is a direct descendant of Proto-Indo-European *ǵhh2éns. In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandra (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, respectively), West Frisian goes, gies and guoske, gans, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās and gæslingr, whence English gosling.
This term also gave žąsìs, gé (goose, from Old Irish géiss), Hindi: कलहंस, anser, Spanish and ganso, Ancient χήν (khēn), gatë (swans), hanhi, Avestan zāō, gęś, gâscă / gânsac, гуска / гусак (huska / husak), гусыня / гусь (gusyna / gus), husa, and (ghāz).
The two living genera of true geese are: Anser, grey geese and white geese, such as the greylag goose and snow goose, and Branta, black geese, such as the Canada goose.
Two genera of geese are only tentatively placed in the Anserinae; they may belong to the shelducks or form a subfamily on their own: Cereopsis, the Cape Barren goose, and Cnemiornis, the prehistoric New Zealand goose. Either these or, more probably, the goose-like coscoroba swan is the closest living relative of the true geese.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related lectures (2)
Shell Buckling: The Shell Effect and Imperfection-Sensitivity
Explores shell buckling, the shell effect in birds' eggs, imperfection-sensitivity, and efforts to revise the knockdown factor.
Related publications (1)
Related concepts (22)
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south, along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by the availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funnelled onto specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.
Anatidae
The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on the water surface, and in some cases diving in at least shallow water. The family contains around 174 species in 43 genera. (The magpie goose is no longer considered to be part of the Anatidae and is now placed in its own family, Anseranatidae.
Anserinae
The Anserinae are a subfamily in the waterfowl family Anatidae. It includes the swans and true geese. Under alternative systematical concepts (see e.g., Terres & NAS, 1991), it is split into two subfamilies, the Anserinae contain the geese and the ducks, while the Cygninae contain the swans. Swans (Tribe Cygnini) Genus Cygnus – true swans: The black-and-yellow-billed swans are sometimes separated in the genus Olor.