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From left to right, to scale; yellow-billed goose, rose-headed king goose, magpie goose, and elegant king goose.
~~~
In home Earth, there is only a single member of the Anseranatidae family, which contains but a single genus and within it one solitary species, the magpie goose Anseranas semipalmata of northern Australia and New Guinea. Apparently divergent since the K-pg, the monotypic family is unique from most other living waterfowl of the modern day and is often remarked as a living fossil. Diverged later in the family than the less aquatic screamers of South America, they share some intermediate physical attributes between these and more advanced aquatic waterbirds, particularly their feet which are only partially webbed and still well-suited to perching with a pronounced reversed hallux which is reduced in most other waterfowl.
~~~
In the Sylvan Isles, however, the lineage retains a little more diversity in the form of the King Geese, genus Sylvanser. The three very large species of king geese alive today, among the largest of flying birds, belong to the same ancient family - along with one known recently extinct relative - as the smaller and more widespread mainland species. As a result of island giganticism, the three representatives on the islands, thought to have reached them roughly 30 million years ago, have exploded in size faced with little competition to weights in all species reaching or surpassing 20 pounds, almost four times that of their more widespread and smaller relative. On the islands they are very adaptable mixed feeders which can forage successful in varied environments on land or in the water, which has left them one of the most successful of all animals to adapt to human development. Frequently gathering in flocks of more than one hundred in tilled fields and managed lawns in parks and gardens to feed, they are ubiquitous throughout every island in the chain even though their abilities of flight are actually quite poor compared to other waterfowl, their wings relatively rounded and small for their size and suited more for short bursts of intense flight rather than lengthy travels. They are effective perchers, with the same opposing hind toe as in their smaller relatives, and are notable for preferring roosts in the branches of trees upland to roosting on the water.
King geese historically likely fed predominately near marshes and riverine environments, avoiding dry uplands, but appear to have increased their population and range considerably since modern development of the islands cleared some of the woodlands and replaced them with the shorter grasses and garden vegetation that the geese greatly prefer for feeding. Today they are so commonplace in the islands that they are sometimes regarded as pests for their habits of soiling lawns, airport runs and park fields with their droppings and their unfortunate habit of gathering in orchards and farmer's fields and pulling unripe fruit or immature grains from low-hanging branches. In the spring and summer, pairs readily build their immense nests, often more than seven feet across and four feet high, in public parks and suburban gardens, in isolated planted islands in the middle of parking lots or busy roadways or even upon low rooftops, with both parents, or sometimes trios, taking turns to incubate clutches of as many as thirteen eggs for a little over a month. The parents are protective but rarely hostile and frequently grow very tame and inoffensive to passers-by, unlike most geese, unless they come to associate humans with handouts of food. Unlike the majority of waterfowl, king geese don't necessarily choose a nest site within close reach of a pond or lake and are readily known to raise their young entirely on land miles away from the nearest source of open water, relying on their large size to protect their young from most native terrestrial animals with ease - a strategy that worked well until the arrival of man to the island, for which the birds had no natural defenses. A giant fourth species (or possible subspecies) of king goose which had possibly become too heavy to fly seems to have been extirpated in just a few decades following the Sylvans' brief pre-European colonization just under 1,000 years ago, and the three surviving species were hunted considerably by early colonists to a notable decline through the 19th and 20th centuries until they were provided a degree of legal protection and hunting regulations introduced in the middle 20th century. Today all three species have bounced back significantly and are likely more numerous than they were before colonization; after a short moratorium on their harvest in the 1960's and 70's, the Australian government again offers a limited annual open hunting season during which several thousand of each species are taken per year with no noticeable affect on their populations, and until comparably recently the birds were the meal of choice for Christian holiday dinners and could be found with regularity in markets and shopping centers during the holiday season (today domesticated geese, generally regarded as tasting less gamey, have mostly replaced them for this use commercially). Vehicle strikes or attacks by unfenced or unsupervised pet dogs are today considered the biggest threats to the species, particularly in urban areas away from water where the birds lead their young through urban environments and across roads in search of pasture to feed; the species is also known to be particularly at risk for collisions with power lines due to their generally low-level flight habits.
~~~
There are three distinct species of King Goose across the Sylvan Islands today, all of which are known to occur at least as a vagrant, if not to form a breeding population, on every island in the chain.
The largest living representative of the family is the Elegant King Goose, Sylvanser elegans. Growing to 40 pounds in weight and as tall as five feet, it is a truly massive bird and the least dependent on water with feet webbed less than a third of the way down the toes, feeding almost entirely on grasses and herbs and browsing from low-hanging branches and shrubs. Most numerous on the island of Apollo, it also breeds on Vhelta, Isla Verda, Anne-Marie, and the North Apollese isles. This species is darker than the others and shows less white, restricted to a patch on the face and to the underparts, being an iridescent black over the back and topside with chocolate brown to reddish shoulders and tan to golden flanks. The neck is dark and shimmers in the light to reveal blue, violet, and deep green iridescence which is often slightly more prominent in the male. The bill is pink and a large fleshy patch of red skin where it meets the body contrasts brightly against the white of the head. This species has proportionately the longest legs of any of the species but a neck that is relatively short, possibly an adaptation to browsing at head-level rather than reaching the neck down and grazing. In nature, the Elegant King Goose prefers lightly forested lowland environments.
The Rose-headed King Goose, Sylvanser rubecephalus, is the second largest member of the genus and the one most at home on the grassland - as a result, it is the species most commonly seen in suburban environments on lawns. This attractive black and white species weighs 35 pounds on average and stands as high as four feet, with a longer neck but stockier build overall compared to its larger relative. Named for their bright pink heads, they most closely resemble the Australian magpie goose in pattern, being otherwise entirely black and white with a white body, black wing coverts, and a dark band around their chest or lower neck. The bill is dark and the skin around the nostrils a deep pink. Rose-headed king geese predominately feed by grazing and feeding along the waters' edge and are more regularly seen near or in water than the Elegant king goose, their feet being almost entirely webbed and their beaks proportionately longer to better facilitate feeding at the shoreline, though they still consume a large amount of grass.
The smallest species is the Yellow-billed King Goose, Sylvanser flavorhynchus, most numerous in the northern islands. Fifteen pounds on average, twenty pounds in weight in exceptional males, but on average as tall as its above cousin, it is a lean species with long legs and a very long arching neck which feeds predominately near water and is the least frequently found in developed areas far from marshes or ponds. The body is a dark green-brown color all over with white underparts, a rose-colored rump, and a white ring around the eye. The bill is obviously yellow and a small patch of red skin separates it from the head. The feet are only half-webbed despite its fondness for water and the wings are proportionately large, making it an unusually capable flyer and the only species ever recorded to naturally leave the islands, having been spotted in both north Australia and the southern coast of New Guinea. An insular morph occurs in the north Apollese isles where the head is a dark almost maroon color and the body shows almost no white, replacing it with beige or brown; once considered a distinct species, it is now simply considered an attractive, partially melanistic variation of the yellow-billed species. This species is more omnivorous than others and consumes a considerable amount of insects and crustaceans in its daily diet. Its bill is less serrated than its relatives and it rarely grazes, preferring softer water plants or cultivated crops. Some taxonomists argue that the yellow-billed king goose is sufficiently divergent from its relatives to warrant its own genus or possibly even inclusion into Anseranas with the smaller common magpie goose, putting forth the possibility that this species' large size may be the result of convergent evolution from an additional, possibly more recent colonization by the family to the islands and that it may not share a direct ancestor with the other two species. If this were to be true, it would make Sylvanser a polyphyletic clade. An aberrant bird shot in 2098 was later proven to be an unlikely hybrid between the yellow-billed and the common magpie goose and may bring some plausibility to this theory, as no other hybrids are known between any members of the family and this may imply a closer relation than has been previously inferred. With the average yellow-billed goose more than two times heavier than the average magpie goose, it may simply be the difficulty of a successful mating that prevents more frequent crossing rather than genetic incompatibility. More research needs to be done on the subject to determine for certain.
Though yellow-billed geese are less frequently found in developed environments than their relatives, they are known to nest on rooftops near man-made ponds and water sources, sometimes requiring rescue if the precocial young are unable to find their way down upon hatching, and in the wild are one of the only known waterfowl in the world to readily build their platform-like nests above the ground as high as fifty feet up in the tops of trees. One pair of the species became famous when they constructed a nest in the steeple of a 180 year old church in the center of the busy coastal Apollese town of Hughberry more than 70 feet from the street below. Upon hatching, the resulting chicks required assistance to the ground and a police escort alongside their disgruntled parents for almost half a mile to reach the safety of a nearby marsh away from busy traffic. The pair attempted to nest in the very same place again the next year requiring the placement of a mesh guard to prevent a repeat event.
~~~
King geese are occasionally kept as zoo specimens around the world, but they are not especially commonplace and captive populations exhibit a limited gene pool. They are more abundant in Australian zoos than elsewhere. They prove easily kept, like most ducks and geese, and are agreeable to an artificial diet and foreign climate once acclimatized.
~~~
In home Earth, there is only a single member of the Anseranatidae family, which contains but a single genus and within it one solitary species, the magpie goose Anseranas semipalmata of northern Australia and New Guinea. Apparently divergent since the K-pg, the monotypic family is unique from most other living waterfowl of the modern day and is often remarked as a living fossil. Diverged later in the family than the less aquatic screamers of South America, they share some intermediate physical attributes between these and more advanced aquatic waterbirds, particularly their feet which are only partially webbed and still well-suited to perching with a pronounced reversed hallux which is reduced in most other waterfowl.
~~~
In the Sylvan Isles, however, the lineage retains a little more diversity in the form of the King Geese, genus Sylvanser. The three very large species of king geese alive today, among the largest of flying birds, belong to the same ancient family - along with one known recently extinct relative - as the smaller and more widespread mainland species. As a result of island giganticism, the three representatives on the islands, thought to have reached them roughly 30 million years ago, have exploded in size faced with little competition to weights in all species reaching or surpassing 20 pounds, almost four times that of their more widespread and smaller relative. On the islands they are very adaptable mixed feeders which can forage successful in varied environments on land or in the water, which has left them one of the most successful of all animals to adapt to human development. Frequently gathering in flocks of more than one hundred in tilled fields and managed lawns in parks and gardens to feed, they are ubiquitous throughout every island in the chain even though their abilities of flight are actually quite poor compared to other waterfowl, their wings relatively rounded and small for their size and suited more for short bursts of intense flight rather than lengthy travels. They are effective perchers, with the same opposing hind toe as in their smaller relatives, and are notable for preferring roosts in the branches of trees upland to roosting on the water.
King geese historically likely fed predominately near marshes and riverine environments, avoiding dry uplands, but appear to have increased their population and range considerably since modern development of the islands cleared some of the woodlands and replaced them with the shorter grasses and garden vegetation that the geese greatly prefer for feeding. Today they are so commonplace in the islands that they are sometimes regarded as pests for their habits of soiling lawns, airport runs and park fields with their droppings and their unfortunate habit of gathering in orchards and farmer's fields and pulling unripe fruit or immature grains from low-hanging branches. In the spring and summer, pairs readily build their immense nests, often more than seven feet across and four feet high, in public parks and suburban gardens, in isolated planted islands in the middle of parking lots or busy roadways or even upon low rooftops, with both parents, or sometimes trios, taking turns to incubate clutches of as many as thirteen eggs for a little over a month. The parents are protective but rarely hostile and frequently grow very tame and inoffensive to passers-by, unlike most geese, unless they come to associate humans with handouts of food. Unlike the majority of waterfowl, king geese don't necessarily choose a nest site within close reach of a pond or lake and are readily known to raise their young entirely on land miles away from the nearest source of open water, relying on their large size to protect their young from most native terrestrial animals with ease - a strategy that worked well until the arrival of man to the island, for which the birds had no natural defenses. A giant fourth species (or possible subspecies) of king goose which had possibly become too heavy to fly seems to have been extirpated in just a few decades following the Sylvans' brief pre-European colonization just under 1,000 years ago, and the three surviving species were hunted considerably by early colonists to a notable decline through the 19th and 20th centuries until they were provided a degree of legal protection and hunting regulations introduced in the middle 20th century. Today all three species have bounced back significantly and are likely more numerous than they were before colonization; after a short moratorium on their harvest in the 1960's and 70's, the Australian government again offers a limited annual open hunting season during which several thousand of each species are taken per year with no noticeable affect on their populations, and until comparably recently the birds were the meal of choice for Christian holiday dinners and could be found with regularity in markets and shopping centers during the holiday season (today domesticated geese, generally regarded as tasting less gamey, have mostly replaced them for this use commercially). Vehicle strikes or attacks by unfenced or unsupervised pet dogs are today considered the biggest threats to the species, particularly in urban areas away from water where the birds lead their young through urban environments and across roads in search of pasture to feed; the species is also known to be particularly at risk for collisions with power lines due to their generally low-level flight habits.
~~~
There are three distinct species of King Goose across the Sylvan Islands today, all of which are known to occur at least as a vagrant, if not to form a breeding population, on every island in the chain.
The largest living representative of the family is the Elegant King Goose, Sylvanser elegans. Growing to 40 pounds in weight and as tall as five feet, it is a truly massive bird and the least dependent on water with feet webbed less than a third of the way down the toes, feeding almost entirely on grasses and herbs and browsing from low-hanging branches and shrubs. Most numerous on the island of Apollo, it also breeds on Vhelta, Isla Verda, Anne-Marie, and the North Apollese isles. This species is darker than the others and shows less white, restricted to a patch on the face and to the underparts, being an iridescent black over the back and topside with chocolate brown to reddish shoulders and tan to golden flanks. The neck is dark and shimmers in the light to reveal blue, violet, and deep green iridescence which is often slightly more prominent in the male. The bill is pink and a large fleshy patch of red skin where it meets the body contrasts brightly against the white of the head. This species has proportionately the longest legs of any of the species but a neck that is relatively short, possibly an adaptation to browsing at head-level rather than reaching the neck down and grazing. In nature, the Elegant King Goose prefers lightly forested lowland environments.
The Rose-headed King Goose, Sylvanser rubecephalus, is the second largest member of the genus and the one most at home on the grassland - as a result, it is the species most commonly seen in suburban environments on lawns. This attractive black and white species weighs 35 pounds on average and stands as high as four feet, with a longer neck but stockier build overall compared to its larger relative. Named for their bright pink heads, they most closely resemble the Australian magpie goose in pattern, being otherwise entirely black and white with a white body, black wing coverts, and a dark band around their chest or lower neck. The bill is dark and the skin around the nostrils a deep pink. Rose-headed king geese predominately feed by grazing and feeding along the waters' edge and are more regularly seen near or in water than the Elegant king goose, their feet being almost entirely webbed and their beaks proportionately longer to better facilitate feeding at the shoreline, though they still consume a large amount of grass.
The smallest species is the Yellow-billed King Goose, Sylvanser flavorhynchus, most numerous in the northern islands. Fifteen pounds on average, twenty pounds in weight in exceptional males, but on average as tall as its above cousin, it is a lean species with long legs and a very long arching neck which feeds predominately near water and is the least frequently found in developed areas far from marshes or ponds. The body is a dark green-brown color all over with white underparts, a rose-colored rump, and a white ring around the eye. The bill is obviously yellow and a small patch of red skin separates it from the head. The feet are only half-webbed despite its fondness for water and the wings are proportionately large, making it an unusually capable flyer and the only species ever recorded to naturally leave the islands, having been spotted in both north Australia and the southern coast of New Guinea. An insular morph occurs in the north Apollese isles where the head is a dark almost maroon color and the body shows almost no white, replacing it with beige or brown; once considered a distinct species, it is now simply considered an attractive, partially melanistic variation of the yellow-billed species. This species is more omnivorous than others and consumes a considerable amount of insects and crustaceans in its daily diet. Its bill is less serrated than its relatives and it rarely grazes, preferring softer water plants or cultivated crops. Some taxonomists argue that the yellow-billed king goose is sufficiently divergent from its relatives to warrant its own genus or possibly even inclusion into Anseranas with the smaller common magpie goose, putting forth the possibility that this species' large size may be the result of convergent evolution from an additional, possibly more recent colonization by the family to the islands and that it may not share a direct ancestor with the other two species. If this were to be true, it would make Sylvanser a polyphyletic clade. An aberrant bird shot in 2098 was later proven to be an unlikely hybrid between the yellow-billed and the common magpie goose and may bring some plausibility to this theory, as no other hybrids are known between any members of the family and this may imply a closer relation than has been previously inferred. With the average yellow-billed goose more than two times heavier than the average magpie goose, it may simply be the difficulty of a successful mating that prevents more frequent crossing rather than genetic incompatibility. More research needs to be done on the subject to determine for certain.
Though yellow-billed geese are less frequently found in developed environments than their relatives, they are known to nest on rooftops near man-made ponds and water sources, sometimes requiring rescue if the precocial young are unable to find their way down upon hatching, and in the wild are one of the only known waterfowl in the world to readily build their platform-like nests above the ground as high as fifty feet up in the tops of trees. One pair of the species became famous when they constructed a nest in the steeple of a 180 year old church in the center of the busy coastal Apollese town of Hughberry more than 70 feet from the street below. Upon hatching, the resulting chicks required assistance to the ground and a police escort alongside their disgruntled parents for almost half a mile to reach the safety of a nearby marsh away from busy traffic. The pair attempted to nest in the very same place again the next year requiring the placement of a mesh guard to prevent a repeat event.
~~~
King geese are occasionally kept as zoo specimens around the world, but they are not especially commonplace and captive populations exhibit a limited gene pool. They are more abundant in Australian zoos than elsewhere. They prove easily kept, like most ducks and geese, and are agreeable to an artificial diet and foreign climate once acclimatized.
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