It is by no means uncontroversial to ascribe characteristics to animals, and human ones at that. Not least and especially when it comes to negative things. The fact that snakes are really particularly insidious, donkeys are willfully stubborn or pigs are dirty has long been disproved. In this context, of course, the goose should also be mentioned, which is often said to have low mental strength. An assumption that the natural scientist Alfred Brehm – otherwise seldom at a loss for a certain humanization of the behavior of his observation objects – described as nonsense more than 160 years ago. A certain divergence between linguistic and real gooses can also be noticed in another context: in the type of locomotion named after the large waterfowl.
Of course we are talking about single file, i.e. waddling in a straight line behind one another. What would appear to be particularly useful if, for example, you were moving along a busy street on the sidewalk. Anyone who now thinks that geese rarely appear as road users can be convinced of the opposite in the north of Vaterstetten. There, more precisely in Baldhamer Straße, geese are occasionally on the move and lounging around as a group on the sidewalk there. The fact that they are not as stupid as the saying goes shows that they are clearly aware of the dangers of road traffic. At least no accidents involving poultry have been reported here. But this may also be due to the self-confident appearance of the not-so-small animals, even trucks respectfully step on the brakes when the geese gang, which has not been brought into a line at all, trundles dangerously close to the side of the road.
Incidentally, the opposite can occasionally be observed a few meters further on the other side of the street when the nearby kindergarten is on an excursion. There is chatter here and there, but only one of the two groups can walk single file – it’s not the one with the feathers.