Montag, 10. November 2025

Greylag geese and domestic geese:

Konrad Lorenz:

“In female greylag geese, sexual behavior is subject to strong inhibitions that can only be overcome through long personal acquaintance with the gander and, above all, through a highly complex ritual. The courtship of the gander and the hesitant consent of the goose are analogous to human pair bonding in so many respects that a precise description of them would expose one to the ridicule of all those who know nothing of analogy. In domestic geese, and even in hybrids between domestic and wild forms, these inhibitions have largely disappeared; the human observer cannot help but perceive the frank sexual advances that a domestic goose makes to a scarcely familiar partner as something vulgar, even decadent. ... We do not perceive the typical behavioral changes of domestication as evil, but as vulgar.”

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