’Chicknapped’

Half of this large brood of baby geese were “kidnapped” by these parents. Marina da Gama resident Penny Gaines, who photographed them, told Southern Mail that, according to an official who manages the grey building next to the Fynbos Center in Zeekoevlei, there had been two families of geese at the building.

“The males got into a flying fight one day and the one female flew after them to defend her mate – but when they eventually got back to the water, the female that had stayed behind, had gathered all the chicks, including theirs, and she and her mate refused to let them go back to their parents. The male was very aggressive when they tried to call their babies, and now it looks like the chicks have settled in with the ‘kidnappers’,” said Ms Gaines.