<P> During the second year of their lives, Canada geese find a mate . They are monogamous, and most couples stay together all of their lives . If one dies, the other may find a new mate . The female lays from two to nine eggs with an average of five, and both parents protect the nest while the eggs incubate, but the female spends more time at the nest than the male . </P> <P> Its nest is usually located in an elevated area near water such as streams, lakes, ponds, and sometimes on a beaver lodge . Its eggs are laid in a shallow depression lined with plant material and down . </P> <P> The incubation period, in which the female incubates while the male remains nearby, lasts for 24--28 days after laying . As the annual summer molt also takes place during the breeding season, the adults lose their flight feathers for 20--40 days, regaining flight about the same time as their goslings start to fly . </P> <P> As soon as the goslings hatch, they are immediately capable of walking, swimming, and finding their own food (a diet similar to the adult geese). Parents are often seen leading their goslings in a line, usually with one adult at the front, and the other at the back . While protecting their goslings, parents often violently chase away nearby creatures, from small blackbirds to lone humans who approach, after warning them by giving off a hissing sound and then attack with bites and slaps of the wings if the threat does not retreat or has seized a gosling . Canada geese are especially protective animals, and will sometimes attack any animal nearing its territory or offspring, including humans . Most of the species that prey on eggs also take a gosling . Although parents are hostile to unfamiliar geese, they may form groups of a number of goslings and a few adults, called crèches . </P>

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