SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — KELOLAND News told you how geese in Sioux Falls, particularly around the airport, present a potentially dangerous situation for airplanes.
Wednesday Sioux Falls Animal Control started the process of trying to get the geese to high tail it out of there with a round of hazing.
If you’re trying to move geese, you just can’t wing it.
Sioux Falls Animal Control methodically uses a cannon to provide the birds with a little shock and awe.
“There’s no projectiles or anything like that nothing comes out of the cannon other than air,” Tanner Bruns with Sioux Falls Animal Control said.
They typically focus their efforts along the Big Sioux River off Cliff Avenue.
“The reason the geese congregate so much in this area, because there is open water, they like to be on water, they feel safe on water, so anywhere the water stays open on the river, we get a large group of geese hanging out,” Bruns said.
They also use a shotgun to fire pyrotechnics at the geese (bang) to try and scare them as well; as you can see it’s similar to a firework.
“That’s usually enough to scare some of these geese off this open water that we have here to try to get them not to want to hang out here and hang out somewhere else in town, not as close to the airport over there, so we try to prevent any potential goose airplane strikes,” Bruns said.
To make sure they continually scare the geese, the cannons go off every hour during the day for the next three months.
They consult with the airport before they start the process because timing is everything.
“Anytime we do hazing we give their air traffic control a call saying ‘hey are we good to do the hazing, because we don’t want to scare the geese upright as a plane was going to land,” Bruns said.
Sioux Falls Animal Control has a second cannon that they set up a little closer to the airport.
