Greylag Goose - Cause of Death?

[cowshill]

I've been watching two families of Greylag (I believe) Geese all spring and summer on Burnhope Reservoir in the North Pennines of County Durham. One family had 3 goslings and the other 6. All have been successfully raised to the point where it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the parents from the goslings. Today, rather than the usual groups of 8 and 5, it was 8 and 4 out on the water. I can no longer be sure, but it looked to me as if the smaller group was 2 parents and 2 goslings - one gosling missing.

Only a short way further on our walk I came across the missing goose lying dead in taller grass near the water.



As the photo shows, not a feather is out of place, so it pretty certainly was not killed by another animal. This is just how we found it, except that its head was tucked under a wing as though asleep. The wings were slightly spread - they weren't moved before the picture the was taken. It's as though the goose were peacefully asleep and then died suddenly of some natural cause, it's wings spreading slightly at the moment of death. As I wrote earlier I think this is one of the goslings, though without having the others nearby for comparison I have no way to be sure.

Can anyone explain what might have been the cause of death for this goose?

- Jim

[cowshill]

This is the rest of the greylag clan. A family of 8, a family of 4, and 2 extra adults referred to as uncle and auntie.

[Dogghound]

Could be any number of things, disease, poison, birth defect, internal trauma, starvation etc....etc... Hard to say from an image im afraid, is it close to a road? or to power cables?

[cowshill]

A mile off the road with no power lines or other "civilized" hazards in the area. It was in a place where I believe the group frequently bed down for the night and, with head under wing, seemed to be in a natural sleeping position. Definitely not starvation. Mostly I was wondering if there were known diseases or defects that frequently caused such deaths.