Greylags are members of the family of “True Geese,” the Anserinae. The individuals LTC Bob spotted are likely members of the Eastern subspecies of Greylag, Anser anser rubrirostris. The western subspecies Anser anser anser, is the species most often seen wild in Europe.
For a while, LTC Bob thought the pair of Greylag Geese inhabiting the waters surrounding the Al-Faw Palace were a domestic species. Eventually a light clicked on, and he sent me the picture above.
I know exactly what he felt like. The first time I went to Epcot Center I ignored the Common Moorhens found on the shore of the lake there for days, assuming that their omniprescence meant that they were a stocked domestic, as if there’s some widespread demand in the world for domesticated waders.
LTC Bob was at least on somewhat more logical grounds than I, as the Greylag is the immediate ancestor of the domestic goose. There’s a reason we look at it and think “Need to find some mint jelly.”
The best way to tell the difference between the domestic and wild versions of Anser is to look at the underside of the goose. The bigger the ass, the bigger the belly, the more likely the bird–or the man, come to think of it–is to be domesticated.
In either case, mint jelly will come in handy.
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Update: LTC Bob’s other pictures, including two of the Greylag, can be seen here.
