Helicopter Parenting

I had heard of the term helicopter parenting but did not expect to see it in the animal kingdom.  All of the geese or duck families I have seen have been a tidy line of goslings or ducklings with one parent in the front of the line and the other bringing up the rear.  Not so with Cirrus and Sal and Eloise.  Eloise,  the gosling, seems to think she is a princess and can decide where she wants to go anytime of the day.  Instead of directing her away from the sheep, C and S move all animals out of Eloise's way.  This has lead to Cirrus losing many of his feathers in defense.  The poor chickens and sheep have had to put up with so much harassment.  When will the geese trust the others not to bother their babe?

Maybe, it is just a single child situation.  With a larger family there would have to be a little more direction.

The ducks have not come yet and I am not sure if they are coming.  I am not sure they would be treated kindly if they did join the animals here.  Cirrus had one of the small black hens cornered in the goose run this morning- the poor thing was so stressed.  He just didn't want her to get too close to Eloise and there was no way to get around her.  When the chicks were younger, one of them was making quite a racket and Sal went to investigate. Moma Black Hen charged at Sal and sent her running.  That was funny to see.  As cute as they are, it will be nice when the little ones grow up a little and can fend for themselves, and stay out of the way.  At least the chicks have a better sense of the sheep movement and know how to wait until the sheep go by, before crossing.  Eloise seems to just be thinking about herself, again maybe an only child thing.

Eloise, sometimes goes through a fence where Cirrus and Sal can not follow.  They used to honk and she would return.  Then they honked and she disregarded their calls and warnings.  Now she strays and C and S just watch and don't bother to call her back.

I wonder how many feathers will be lost over the princess.