Domestic goose

A domestic goose is a goose that humans have domesticated and kept for their meat, eggs, or down feathers. Domestic geese have been derived through selective breeding from the wild greylag goose (Anser anser domesticus) and swan goose (Anser cygnoides domesticus). In Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, the original domesticated geese are derived from the greylag goose (Anser anser). In eastern Asia, the original domesticated geese are derived from the swan goose (Anser cygnoides); these are commonly known as Chinese geese. Both have been widely introduced in more recent times, and modern flocks in both areas (and elsewhere, such as Australia and North America) may consist of either species or hybrids between them. Chinese geese may be readily distinguished from European geese by the large knob at the base of the bill, though hybrids may exhibit every degree of variation between the two species. Charles Darwin remarked in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication that the domestication of geese is of a very ancient date. There is archaeological evidence for domesticated geese in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago. It has been proposed that geese were domesticated around 3000 BCE in southeastern Europe, possibly in Greece, but reliable evidence of domestic geese comes from a much later period (8th century BCE) in The Odyssey. Another potential domestication site is in Egypt during the Old Kingdom (2686–1991 BCE) due to iconographic evidence of goose exploitation, but this scenario for the original domestication event has been considered less likely. Geese were also herded by ancient Mesopotamians for food and sacrifices and depicted in Mesopotamian art from the early Dynastic Period (2900–2350 BCE) onwards. Certainly, fully domesticated geese were present during the New Kingdom times in Egypt (1552–1151 BCE) and contemporaneously in Europe, and goose husbandry involving several varieties was well established by the Romans by the 1st century BCE. In the Medieval Period, goose husbandry was at its peak with large flocks kept by peasants.