Word: canadas
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Rikers island has held New York City's tough-guy prisoners for more than a century, but it is also populated by a much flightier group that stands accused of crimes against New Yorkers: Canada geese. Attracted by the vacant fields and easy access to water, thousands of geese have come to live on the fringes of the island, which is less than a mile from La Guardia Airport. But because the big birds have shown a propensity for colliding with jets - there have been at least 68 Canada-goose strikes in New York State in the past decade...
Call it the geese war - and its battlefield extends far beyond New York. With few predators and lots of lawns to graze on, the migratory birds have taken up full-time residence throughout much of the U.S., where the Canada-goose population has soared to more than 3.2 million. To some, that's a blessing - the black-and-tan birds are beautiful, particularly in flight. But to others, Canada geese are noisy, smelly - not to mention aggressive - guests that have overstayed their welcome. Cities including Minneapolis and Reno, Nev., have implemented annual culling programs as neighbors in smaller towns fight...
...Canada geese shouldn't be present in such numbers - and they nearly weren't. Thanks to overhunting and habitat loss, their numbers were dangerously low by the 1950s. But better environmental laws helped reverse the decline, and the geese learned to adapt to and eventually thrive in man-made environments. Ponds in public parks, people to feed them, nicely mowed yards and golf courses - Canada geese found a home in America's expanding suburbs, even in such hot spots as Arizona, Florida and South Carolina...
...flock of geese struck both engines of US Airways Flight 1549 out of La Guardia, forcing it to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Bird strikes are up nationwide, with pilots reporting more than 82,000 such collisions from 1980 to 2007. Not all those incidents involved Canada geese, but since these birds can grow to be as heavy as 14 lb., they present a particularly meaty threat to planes. (Watch TIME's video of the rescue of US Airways flight...
...Unless the new GM finds a quick path to prosperity, the billions of dollars invested in the company by Canada may soon end up being used, one way or another, to relocate production to Mexico...