You may be surprised to learn that before the 1930s, Canada geese (Branta canadensis) did not commonly nest in Massachusetts. These geese were mostly migratory, nesting and breeding far to the north, hence the name Canada goose.

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Now, some Canada geese are still migratory, nesting in the north and wintering in central and southern parts of the United States and in parts of Mexico. But other Canada geese are year-round residents, gracing us with their raucous presence all winter long.

What made Canada geese stop migrating? In a word, hunting. In the 1800s, hunters used live decoys and wooden geese to lure migratory geese. In the 1840s, goose hunters (called gunners) near Plymouth, built the first documented shooting stand with live decoys. These involved keeping young geese cooped up in a room of the tower and tethering their parents to the ground near the blind.

When the hunters saw migratory geese approaching, they slid open a door and shooed out the young geese. The alarmed parents, tethered to the ground near the blind, saw their youngsters flying away and called out to their kids.

Geese and their offspring form strong bonds (young geese remain with their parents for about a year.) The young geese, heeding their parents, circled and returned to the shooting stand, luring migratory geese with them.

These could be large operations. The most famous tower in Massachusetts used 300 to 400 live geese, and the hunters would send 60 or more young geese into the air at once. The gunners would spend days in this routine. One gunner said, “Since live decoys have come into use, it seems to take no effort . . . to bag 200 birds each morning.”

By the late 1800s, this overhunting meant Canada geese had almost completely disappeared from our region.

(If you think this was cruel, snipe and curlew hunters crippled birds by shooting them in the wings. The hunters placed the injured birds on the ground or in shallow water to call in distress. The distress calls lured unsuspecting migrant birds to the waiting gunners.)

Finally, in 1935, the Bureau of Biological Survey (a predecessor to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) . At the time, Massachusetts breeders had 8,500 . After the ban, breeders released many of these captive geese into the wild, mostly in eastern Massachusetts. By 1938, hunters had abandoned most shooting stands because their success depended on live decoys.

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These released decoy geese did not migrate, because Canada geese breed near where they hatch and learn to fly (called natal philopatry). In one study, 96 percent of Canada geese raised their young near where they were born Releasing captive geese that breeders had hatched and raised locally led to offspring that did not migrate north to nest in the spring. These geese, born here, thought Massachusetts was where they belonged. They did not know that historically their ancestors had bred far to the north. When spring breeding season arrived, these geese nested around ponds, lakes and marshes close to where they grew up.

Young geese travel with their parents on their first migration south. If the parents haven’t learned to migrate, the youngsters do not learn either. This, coupled with plenty of grassy open space for feeding and the birds’ ability to survive Massachusetts winters, led to goose families settling in Massachusetts year-round.

One other factor complicated the migration picture: There are seven subspecies of the Canada goose. When European settlers first arrived on our shores in the 1600s, the geese they encountered were mostly the subspecies Atlantic Canada geese (Branta canadensis canadensis). Early hunters from our region.

In the live-decoy era, breeders raised a different subspecies, the Giant Canada goose (Branta canadensis maxima). This goose came from the Great Lakes region. This subspecies was a little larger than other Canada geese and less migratory. It tended to stay near its breeding ground year-round. The 1930s breeders released mostly giant Canada geese in Massachusetts.

By the 1960s, the year-round Canada goose population had grown so much that they were nuisances in eastern parts of the state. From the 1960s through 1976, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) captured goslings in eastern Massachusetts and transplanted them to areas without geese in central and western Massachusetts. Their goal: To provide sporting opportunities for hunters.

At the time, the resident goose population was about 6,000 to 8,000 birds, but by 1993, it had grown to 32,000. By 2014 . Beginning in 1988, Massachusetts introduced resident goose hunting. Today, these hunting seasons occur in early fall and mid-winter when migratory geese are less common visitors.

Of course, people do not shoot geese at all in urban areas like Cambridge and Somerville. Since one goose can produce a pound or more of droppings per day, they can become a real problem — especially on golf courses, ball fields and lawns. Both Boston and Arlington tackle the problem by oiling goose eggs. Oiled eggs do not hatch, which gradually leads to a lower goose population.

Massachusetts went from having almost no breeding Canada geese before the 1930s to releasing thousands of decoy geese in the late 1930s to deliberately spreading goslings across the state in the 1960s. Today, our resident Canada geese love that dirty water and think Massachusetts is their home.

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