What happened to the goose that stole all the consideration at Dodgers playoff game?

About 47,000 supporters at Dodger Stadium hardly discovered at to start with when a goose manufactured a rough landing in shallow correct field all through the 8 inning of Wednesday’s NL Division Sequence recreation amongst the Dodgers and Padres.

But then the stadium’s digital camera operators spotted the fowl and blasted its graphic onto the stadium’s jumbotron screen, drawing hoots, laughter and cheers from the group.

Fox Athletics Television set broadcasts zoomed in on the disoriented goose, its head swiveling facet-to-facet as it sat in the outfield, as 1 play-by-perform announcer commented, “Ducks are really aggressive. I do not know if you know that. They are very intense.”

A different commentator questioned, “Is that a duck?”

Soon after something like a wild-goose chase, the grounds crew wrapped the large hen in a towel, positioned it into a plastic recycling bin and retreated again into the Dodgers dugout. The crowd cheekily booed, lamenting the finish of a split to an in any other case dismal inning for the Dodgers who trailed by two runs.

“Can validate that the goose was safely released,” Nicole Singer, vice president of public relations for the Dodgers, wrote in an e mail.

Movie of the goose was broadly circulated on social media, the latest addition to the entertaining sports activities sub-style of wild animals interrupting competitiveness. Yet laughter aside, numerous users took to Twitter to request, is the chicken okay? And why did the fowl land on the field in the 1st area?

Travis Longcore, president of the Los Angeles Audubon Culture and adjunct professor at UCLA, identified the wild hen as a larger white-fronted goose, which he explained are an unheard of sight throughout most of the year in city Los Angeles.

As opposed to other species these kinds of as Canada geese, which have built homes at parks during Los Angeles County, the greater white-fronted geese are only viewed in the course of specified seasons of the yr all through migration.

They are known to migrate from the arctic tundra in Alaska, exactly where they breed in the summer months, and in the slide, fly south alongside the Pacific, settling in the wetlands in the Central Valley of California or even farther south into Mexico, a flight pattern the chicken has carried out for hundreds of several years, Longcore claimed.

The chicken on Wednesday was likely subsequent this migration sample when it became distracted by the stadium lights that tower earlier mentioned Chavez Ravine, a frequent obstacle for migrating birds, he explained, whose exploration include the outcomes of mild pollution on migratory birds.

Moments prior to the goose landed on the area, lovers experienced spotted a flock of geese, traveling low, in the vicinity of the stadium lights in a “V” formation.

About 80% of birds migrate at night, preferring the interesting of darkness, he reported. However lights from constructions this sort of as interaction towers or skyscrapers, can catch the attention of birds, creating them to possibly land within just the brightness or circle it in flight.

Frequently occasions, light-weight pollution can lead to birds to turn out to be disoriented and crash into constructions, which contributes to the death of thousands and thousands of migratory birds every single year, in accordance to a team of conservationists driving Entire world Migratory Bird Working day, which took area past week. The initiative phone calls on cities to reduce light-weight pollution throughout peak migration periods in May possibly and Oct.

“It’s like they get into this zone, and they just won’t go back into the darkness,” Longcore reported.

Los Angeles, CA - October 12: A goose captured on the discipline throughout the eighth inning in sport two of the NLDS in between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA.(Robert Gauthier / VFAB)

(Robert Gauthier/VFAB)

He applauded the grounds crew’s use of a towel, which is critical in preventing injury to the birds feathers.

And despite the fact that the Dodgers did not disclose how and where they unveiled the chook, Longcore hoped it was around a entire body of water.

Most white-fronted geese are noticed along bodies of water, such as lakes at MacArthur and Echo parks, at the L.A. River, or in the wetlands of Playa Del Rey or the South Bay, Longcore explained. The goose very likely mistook the grass on the area as water, which would demonstrate its tricky landing, he explained.

Bird fans have been buzzing on the internet in modern months about large flocks of larger white-fronted geese spotted throughout coastal Southern California, stated Kimball Garrett, a researcher at the Natural Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County.

Garrett experienced been looking at the activity from his L.A. home when the unwitting goose interrupted enjoy.

Geese are identified to fly together as family members, yet even nevertheless the chicken was separate from its group, Garrett said he isn’t fearful about its survival.

He approximated the goose was a calendar year aged, a grown adult, presented its white trim around its beak and black belly, which indicates it experienced produced this migration south at minimum at the time before.

He certain that geese can endure on your own, are robust fliers and are excellent at getting appropriate habitats, foods, as properly as other geese.

“They’re definitely good at locating each and every other,” Garrett said, “And they can survive properly wonderful on their very own.”

With October as a peak migration interval all through the earth, equally hope this won’t be the last clash of playoff baseball and migrating birds.

“I hope it reminds folks that even here in Los Angeles, we are continue to portion of the organic entire world,” Longcore explained, “And we can do issues to do our component in building it safer for them.”