One of the most popular waterfowl game birds in America is one that was once thought to be extinct--the giant Canada goose.

Dr. Jean T. Delacour in his 1954 book, The Waterfowl of the World was among those who proclaimed the giant Canada extinct. However, Dr. Delacour did not know, nor did any other game researcher at the time, that in scattered and isolated pockets throughout the historical breeding grounds of North America small groups of the birds had survived.

Thankfully in less than 30 years the birds have gone from those few isolated survivors to one of the high plains states' most important waterfowl game bird species.

The recovery of the giant Canadas is story of luck and sensible wildlife management.

Throughout the 1800s and into the early 1900s the giant Canada geese were commonly used as live decoys to lure migrating Canadas into gun range. In 1937 live decoys were outlawed and the few remaining captive flocks of giants were either killed for the table or sold to people who raised the birds for game farms or just enjoyed them around because of their unusual size.

Although market hunting had been outlawed and there were strict limits and seasons on waterfowl in place, all of North America's waterfowl continued to reel from habitat losses. Today researchers and historians agree that habitat loss was the single largest contributing factor to the decline of the giant Canada goose. Unfortunately, the habitat problem has not improved but the birds have learned to adapt to today's environmental conditions.

Before the birds could begin their adaptation to new habitat, they first had to be saved and the populations restored. Most wildlife researchers were convinced by Delcaour's book that the giant Canada goose was extinct. Surprisingly, however, in 1953 Colorado's Division of Wildlife was involved in a goose restoration program using birds taken from small surviving groups of privately owned birds and was actively looking for areas where wildlife researchers could transplant surviving giants.

SOME OF COLORADO'S EARLY EFFORTS to save the giant Canadas were dismal failures. The first release at College Lake produced only three nests and all three were lost to predators. The following year loose dogs raided the nests. In 1959 two pairs of geese successfully nested and the following year four more pairs produced offspring, but prospects for the birds were not promising unless another source of birds could be found.

The two researchers who were most heavily involved in the recovery effort were Gurney "Papa Goose" Crawford, a long-time Colorado wildlife officer, and Jack Grieb, a biologist who had been with the state for only five years. Both men were searching desperately throughout the state for more giant geese.

Colorado's giant Canada goose population may have been saved by the efforts of a man who is known today only as "Dr. Hoyt." In the early 1900s Hoyt had been an avid goose hunter and he maintained a dozen giant Canadas as live decoys. About the time of the ban on live decoys Hoyt sold his remaining birds to Dan and Virgie Gallagher in Denver, Colorado. The Gallaghers moved the birds to Bowles Lake, southwest of Denver. Dan Gallagher was an employee of the city of Denver and worked at the water treatment plant. He placed the birds on the city-owned lake where they would be safe from predators and hunters. The small flock began to grow and in 1960 the Gallagher flock became the most important geese in Colorado.

Crawford and Grieb contacted the Gallaghers and explained what they were trying to do and asked if they could have some birds. The Gallaghers gave the two wildlife officers permission to take eggs from nesting Gallagher geese. The eggs were taken to special pens and incubated by White Rock Bantam chicken hens. After hatching, the surrogate mothers brooded the goslings until they were 9-10 weeks old when they were released on selected lakes. This surrogate mother program continued until 1963 when an artificial goose incubation technique was developed.

While Crawford and Grieb were working on the Gallagher flock, rumors of giant Canada geese were being reported to other researchers. Apparently no hard evidence of a free-flying flock of these birds was produced so the rumors were dismissed as hunter fantasy until January, 1962, when Dr. Harold C. Hanson was working with Forest B. Lee of the Minnesota Department of Conservation during a research program involving the banding, weighing, and measuring of geese captured from a flock identified as the "The Rochester Flock."

LEE BELIEVED THE BIRDS, which weighed more and were larger than "normal" geese, were a subspecies of Canada and might be surviving giants. Later, under a closer examination and laboratory study, researchers concluded that the birds called the Rochester Flock were indeed Branta canadensis maxima, or giant Canada geese.

In response to the discovery that the geese were not extinct, wildlife agencies throughout the breeding grounds of the giants began crash programs to re-establish the birds. Today there are at least 150,000 giant Canada geese in their breeding grounds. The first is the "Hi-Line" population, consisting of giant Canada geese from successful restoration efforts in the High Plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The Great Plains population of geese are bred in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Confusion about giant Canada geese abounds. Many hunters want to believe that the large geese of Colorado and other areas are just common Canadas and not giants, and that giants are found somewhere else in the country and weigh more than 20 pounds.

Goose hunters should not feel bad if they are confused; even the experts are. Harper & Row's Complete Field Guide to North American Wildlife differentiates between the subspecies of Canadas only by explaining there are two sizes, larger and smaller. In the Birds of North America by Golden Press, the publishers explain there are at least 10 different subspecies of Canadas which differ greatly in size and slightly in color. Finally, Leonard Lee Rue III, in his book Game Birds of North America, writes that there are only five subspecies. He does point out there are differences in the bird's size and color shadings but he says the largest of the five is the common Canada goose with a length of 39 inches, a wingspan of 76 inches, and a weight up to 13 pounds. Lee Rue says nothing about the giant Canadas of 15 pounds.

Another common belief is that all Canadas interbreed and all the subspecies are slowly being eliminated. According to the biologists, this is not true.

What is fact is that today there are 10 subspecies of Canada geese and the differences are subtle. Biologists have also determined that the geese keep to themselves by subspecies group, even when several subspecies are found in the same migrating flock.

AS FOR HUNTING THE GEESE, they are hunted the same as any other Canada goose. Southern hunters will seldom get an opportunity to hunt the big birds because they prefer to stay north and move South only when they are forced by ice to look for open water.

The most common Canada geese are lessors which reach a maximum weight of about seven pounds. The western Canada goose reaches a top weight of about 10 pounds and the common Canadas weigh 9-10 pounds and are darker than the largest members of the species. The giants are the geese that weigh 13-15 pounds, and occasionally more. Giants are somewhat longer in body length and are lighter colored than common Canadas.

When goose hunting it isn't hard to distinguish a giant Canada from any of the others. The giants are big, much bigger than any other birds in the flight. They aren't, "big old geese that have survived many seasons," as some old-timers want to believe.

The huge geese flying along with their smaller cousins are an inspiring success story for America's waterfowl restoration programs.