In the village of Bøvlingbjerg at Nissum Fjord in Denmark, a visitors’ centre called Gåsen (The Goose) was opened in 2022, as part of the Nature Park Nissum Fjord, at the initiative of the Lemvig and Holstebro Municipalities. Aarhus University acts as scientific advisor to the Nature Park.

Since 2022, annual Goose Days for the public have been held at the centre in April. The program includes excursions to the nearby Nissum Fjord (important staging site for pink-footed geese, barnacle geese and light-bellied brent), story-telling about geese, presentations about scientific news, goose memory, goose quiz trail, making drawings and painting eggs.

User groups such as birdwatchers, hunters and farmers are invited to evening meetings with thematic presentations about geese and goose management issues.

It is planned to extend the goose dissemination activities to include a direct interface to science, with capture and tagging of geese in collaboration with the local community and to be shown at the centre and, in the longer term, at similar visitors’ centres along the flyways of the geese.

Photos by Ole Jørgensen and Vibeke Pedersen: