Wild goose chase: Squamish community raises funds to capture arrow-struck bird

Community members in Squamish have raised funds, hoping to save a Canada goose who was reportedly shot with an arrow four months ago.

According to a GoFundMe page, ‘Wilson’ the Canada goose flew to Squamish two months ago, after being “shot in the rump” with a 33-inch arrow in Sechelt.

Tim Cyr, a wildlife photographer, started the fundraiser after reportedly taking part in many attempts to capture Wilson.

“He has now developed quite a limp, but is still fast and smart enough to escape our rescue,” Cyr said on the fundraising page.

Cyr tells 1130 NewsRadio that Wilson — named after the volleyball star of the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away — is too much of a “survivor” to be caught.

“He’s just too smart. We get close, but he just flies away, because he can still fly. He does everything a goose can do, and the flock has accepted him, but he’s just got this big arrow sticking out of him.”

Funds from the page will benefit the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC (WRA) in order to buy a net gun and accessories to capture Wilson.

“We have tried every tool in Wildlife Rescue’s toolbox to no avail, a net gun is the only way we are going to catch him. The net gun would also come in very handy for catching injured birds, Great Blue Herons, and a variety of other small animals in the future,” the GoFundMe page explained.

Cyr says the device looks like a flashlight, and shoots a net 10 to 30 feet to land on, and safely entangle, the target. After which, he says the plan is for someone to scoop Wilson up in a blanket and transport him to an animal hospital in Burnaby.

“I’ve actually made a homemade net out of a hula hoop and some mosquito netting. And I was thinking about trying that, but the net gun is the only way to go, really, I think, for this situation, because he’s too quick.”

Cyr says there’s no telling how Wilson is surviving or if he’ll be able to complete a southern migration in his current condition. Likewise, he says no one seems to know how Wilson got shot.

“It’s only four months that they’ve known about it, because they could say he might have flown to Sechelt from somewhere else. Who knows? Because nobody knows where he was actually shot,” said Cyr, adding that he suspects it was a target-practice arrow, and not a hunting arrow.

Within six hours of its creation, the GoFundMe page exceeded its goal of $2,000.

Cyr says he’s heartened by the community’s response to Wilson’s story. He says people phone him to tell him about Wilson’s whereabouts, and District of Squamish bylaw officers keep dogs away from the flock.

“They’ve been really helpful. Everybody’s been really helpful. And it’s just a matter of catching him. He’s limping really quite, quite badly now, and he wasn’t really before. So it’s taken its toll. The arrow’s been in him for four months.”

Cyr is urging people who see Wilson to leave him alone, and not attempt to pull the arrow out.