Grey Couple

I raised more than thirty geese, most of them have pure white fur, very beautiful, except for a male and a female goose that is gray-brown, I gave them the names gray boy and cinderella. After the two of them formed a family, I called them the gray couple.

The gray couple in the goose flock's status is very low, often by the other goose family bullying. The main living area of my flock of geese is the pond behind my house, which is about the size of a basketball court, and each goose family occupies a certain side of the water according to their status in the flock. For example, the water on the left side of the pond, where the grass is most abundant and the fish and shrimp are most concentrated, belongs to the husband goose giraffe and the female goose snow demon. Giraffe is the head goose of the group, as long as they are there, the other geese will not dare to swim there. The gray couple in the goose's lowest status, has the worst water surface, the smallest, the location just and the husband goose giraffe home adjacent to the pond against the shore of that palm-sized gourd-shaped shallow water bay, the water turbid, shallow fish and shrimp do not care to swim over to play.

At this time of year, it is the time for geese to hatch their eggs, and Cinderella has hatched four fluffy gray goslings. The goose is an early bird, and a few hours after birth, it can follow its mother and father into the water to swim and feed. I happened to be at the pond clearing a clogged ditch when I saw Grey Boy and Cinderella walking with their babies toward Hulu Bay. They came to the usual place to get into the water, suddenly, the old goose giraffe swam out from among the pond's water plants, swam to Cinderella, stretched out the flat broad beak towards Cinderella's breast, and pecked heavily, Cinderella stumbled, the four little gray geese were so scared that they rushed back from the water's edge to the shore. The male goose giraffe stretched his neck to the sky and kept calling as if he was making a solemn announcement: This piece of Hulu Bay is already mine! The female goose, Snow Demon, swam around the bay with her five golden goslings in a lively manner. I think the husband goose giraffe and the female goose snow demon may be because their family members have increased, too small for the original waters, they took advantage of the gray couple on the shore of the goose shed hatching eggs, forced to occupy this piece of palm-sized gourd Bay.

The gray boy and the gray girl on the shore indignantly screamed for a while, with four gray geese towards the front of the pond, but the pond has long been divided up, no matter where they go, they were expelled. They circled the pond in the hot sun, and finally returned to Hulu Bay.

The four little gray geese were so uncomfortable with the sun that they clamored to get into the water. Cinderella rubbed her beak against the wings of the gray boy, then firmly twisted the gray boy's head toward the male goose giraffe guarding the lower water of Hulu Bay, with a short, fierce cry from her mouth.

The male goose is the defender of the family's interests, and disputes between goose families are usually settled by the male goose by force. This physical action of Cinderella is urging the gray boy to go forward to crush the husband's goose giraffe. The gray boy timidly looked at the old goose giraffe, which was a head higher than it, and looked down at the gray goose that was looking forward to going to the water, and ran towards the water of Hulu Bay with a loud cry, and the old goose giraffe immediately flapped its wings to the shore to meet the battle. In a moment, they are on the gravel with each other beaks pecking, with wings swinging up.

The gray boy was physically and mentally disadvantaged and was defeated in two rounds, with several broken wing feathers and blood pecked out of the sarcoma at the top of his crown. It fled back to Cinderella, shrunken neck, crouched on the ground, shivering, a look of a lost soul.

As far as I know, the male goose lost the battle and fled back, the female goose has two kinds of performance: one is like the male goose, shrinking feathers and hanging head, wailing several times, said with her husband to share the sorrow and shame of failure, called sympathy posture; the second is contemptuously turned his head, turned away, said disdain and the loser husband to stay together, called contempt posture. What surprised me was that Cinderella did not do either of these two poses, but spread her wings, lowered her neck to a height parallel to her body, turned her beak up, walked with graceful steps to the gray boy, webbed palms high and low, danced, flapped her wings beautifully, and purred gleefully.

I am familiar with Cinderella This set of forms and body language is a typical celebration ritual of geese. Where the male goose has achieved a glorious victory in the campaign, female geese will use this ceremony to welcome the male goose's triumph. But the gray boy did not win and also failed miserably, Cinderella's use of celebration ritual is not the right text, bullheaded. Even the gray boy realized this and shamefully stuck his flat, broad beak under his wings along with his head.

Cinderella still stubbornly performed the ceremony, the four little gray geese also follow the mother's example, neck flat, beak up, the tender little wings swaying flapping, around the squatting gray boy danced.

I have been raising geese for so many years, or the first time I saw a female goose with a celebration ceremony for a failed male goose.

As the ceremony unfolded, I noticed that the gray boy's head came out from under his wings and stood proudly with his chestnut pupils like a re-blown fire pit, glowing with light, and his closed feathers swelling up little by little. Finally, it stood up and waddled towards the old goose giraffe again. This time, the gray boy behaved much more bravely than just now, and it twisted and fought with the old goose giraffe.

Suddenly, it agilely climbed on the back of the old goose giraffe, with the scapula on the hard bone hitting the old goose giraffe's head. The old goose giraffe was probably knocked unconscious, backed up, and fell into the pond without paying attention. The gray boy also followed the jump into the pond, the old goose giraffe stepped into the water.

The old goose giraffe choked a mouthful of water, was seriously frightened, from the water after floating up, quickly paddle webbed palm, to the female goose snow demon fled around. But the female goose demon turned her head away contemptuously, and turned around and swam into the water and grass with her five golden goslings. The old male goose giraffe swam away from the gourd bay in frustration. The gray couple seized the same gourd bay belonging to them, with four gray goslings happily frolicking in the water, foraging for food.

Cinderella, contrary to tradition, used the celebration ceremony for the gray boy who suffered the shame of defeat, which awakened the gray boy's self-esteem and aroused his fighting spirit, which was a remarkable performance for the female goose.