Maybe geese were the first poultry species to be domesticated.

PAZH | Ancient goose bones from a village in China suggest that geese were domesticated 7,000 years ago. In contrast, some studies have suggested that chickens were domesticated as far back as the ninth millennium BCE.

A team led by researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan has subjected goose bones from a stone-age village in the Yangtze River valley to rigorous analysis. Their results all point to the bones coming from domesticated birds.

The goose population appears to have been maintained for several generations by breeding with other populations.

A goose is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae.
This group comprises the genera Anser and Branta. Some other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have “goose” as part of their names.
But more distantly related members of the family Anatidae are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller.

Geese in the sky

Geese fossils were found ranging from 10 to 12 million years ago (Middle Miocene).
Garganornis ballmanni from the Late Miocene (~ 6-9 Ma) of the Gargano region of central Italy, stood one and a half meters tall and weighed about 22 kilograms.
But the evidence suggests the bird was flightless, unlike modern geese.

Geese, like other birds, fly in a V formation. During Geese flight relationship, between birds is essential, and the V formation can make that easier.
So They use this technique for two reasons, to slow down energy loss and to keep track of every bird in the formation.

The birds in the back of the formation use pockets of air from the movement of the birds in front to help keep them aloft. Then each bird turns in front of the formation to ensure longer flights with fewer stops.

Poultry is farmers worldwide, with chicken accounting for 93% of the world’s poultry population. But there has been considerable debate about when poultry was first domesticated. What is your opinion?