Separate and together on the zoo island

On the zoo island, children and wild barnacle geese that live in the area settle into a common landscape which, however, appears different for both of them. Diverse relations with other animals, plants, technologies and materialities present as well as different rhythms of everyday life and institutions affect on how it is possible to move in space, who to meet, and what kind of actions become significant.

During the summer camp arranged at the zoo, children and barnacle geese are most of the time near each other, yet they do not come across constantly. We are in front of a paddock with the primary school-aged campers, eagerly waiting for the Mongolian horses to have a hay meal set by the children themselves. On top of a cliff, only a few meters behind us, two barnacle geese are looking in the opposite direction, towards the sea. Despite them being that close, neither the children nor the geese seem to pay attention to each other.

Every now and then the summer campers and the barnacle geese meet amidst their chores. We are walking in a line past a lawn where the geese graze. Children’s lively chatting gets mixed with the cackling conversation of the geese. "Oh, those there have a chick, and yet two over there," a child excitedly points to their friends. We admire how cute the chicks are, while they are eating on the grass. The life of the geese evokes interest and astonishment in the children. “Do they eat their own poo?” one camper wonders.

In the encounters with the geese, nervousness and concern also come up. I ask children what they think about geese. “They are scary, I’m scared that they might run at me,” one of the children says. “Fancy feather patterns but don’t get any closer,” another child states. In the encounters between the children and the geese, controlling the distance seems important for both sides. Goose parents protecting their nests and chicks look after the suitable distances, occasionally in an aggressive manner, though there are notable differences between individual geese's behaviour. The campers are well aware of the ways of the geese, and they are able to tell why and when the geese make protective gestures: “when they have a nest”, “in the spring when they have babies”. Our conversation inspires the children to step into the bodily experience of the geese: the children’s necks straighten out, and their faces twist into a hissing expression.

A lively queue of campers is heading for the next destination when a goose approaches, neck straight and hissing, which makes the children straighten their arms in front of them. This gesture has been well etched in the campers’ communication repertoire. The camp counselors guide the children during the encounter, and the course of the queue continues peacefully, without any conflict.

Children’s knowledge and communication skills concerning geese are both retrieved from previous encounters and learned within educational practices at the zoo. The children have been encountering geese during several summers already, and they have discussed encountering these animals with the summer camp teachers.