Wildlife photographer Tim Cyr first spotted a Canada goose with an arrow protruding from its body in Squamish last summer, and immediately knew he had to help.
He named the goose Wilson after the volleyball in the movie Castaway, and set about trying to capture it so the arrow could be safely removed by a veterinarian.
But he had no idea how difficult that would be.
“He was getting to the point where it was hard to get close to him, because so many people had tried to catch him. I probably tried three or four times with a hula hoop net, a homemade one,” said Cyr. “Wilson was getting too smart.”
After a long absence, Wilson was spotted last week at Furry Creek golf course, with the arrow still stuck in his body. Because the goose recognized him, Cyr knew he needed to enlist someone else to attempt another capture.
Miles Lamont with Terra Fauna Wildlife Consulting volunteered to come out with his net gun. Cyr hid in nearby bushes, so the goose didn’t see him and fly off.
“All of a sudden, I heard a bang, and he shot and got him. And we ran out there and he was secured, we had a blanket over him. We cut the arrow out, put him in a cage and took him down to Maple Ridge,” said Cyr.
Complicated surgery
Dr. Adrian Walton at Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge had volunteered to help, and was tasked with removing the part of the arrow still imbedded in the goose.
“I had no surgical approach. I couldn’t go from above because of the pelvis, couldn’t go from the side because of the way the musculature is in birds, and it couldn’t go from below because of the internal organs. And so I only had one chance, and that was could I move the arrow out backwards,” said Walton.
The veterinarian slowly and carefully twisted the piece of arrow, and it came out. It was a practice arrow with a blunt tip.
“Wilson got very lucky in that if this was any other arrow tip, this would have killed him,” said Walton, who said there is no excuse for shooting an animal with anything.
“I give the person who did it the benefit of the doubt that they were just trying to scare him away, but that’s not appropriate on any level. Wildlife, leave them alone.”
What’s next for Wilson?
After the wound was cleaned and sutured, Wilson was transferred to MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre on Vancouver Island where he’s on antibiotics to prevent infection.
“He’s still got the sutures in, and they will stay in probably another week or so. And then when once we take those out, and the wound is fully healed, we’ll probably just put him outside until his waterproofing has improved,” said MARS manage Megan Erickson, who explained when birds spent too much time inside, their waterproofing declines.
“We’ll just make sure that’s up to standard. And then we’ll send him back out,” she said, adding the rescue centre would gladly accept donations to help pay for Wilson’s care.
“He’s probably going to be there a month or so to recover, and then we’ll bring him back to Furry Creek and release and where we found him,” said Cyr.
Between the photographer and the wildlife consultant, the vet and the rescue centre, saving Wilson was a team effort.
“Absolutely amazing that the community has kind of come together like this to help. And, you know, a lot of people say oftentimes, ‘oh, it’s just a goose, it’s just a goose.’ But to us this is a life,” said Erickson. “We have very, very high hopes for him. I think he’ll do really well.”
