Geese are raised commercially for meat, feathers, down and foie gras (a delicacy made from the fatty livers of ducks or geese). Some geese are also kept as guard animals since they readily detect sounds that are not normal to the area in which they are kept. Geese have been known to chase away wild cats such as a lynx.

Vocabulary

• Goose is singluar, Geese is plural
• Goose = adult female goose
• Gander = adult male goose (Do you remember the old saying 'What is good for the goose is good for the gander"?)
• Gosling - young (baby) goose
• Down = layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down.
• Foie gras = French for 'fat liver' and is a food product made form the liver of a duck or goose that has been specifically fattened.