Richard Collins: How do brent geese choose a leader to follow?

Brent geese travel in groups which include family parties

Brent geese travel in groups which include family parties. Picture: iStock

Brent geese will be leaving us shortly, pairs and their youngsters joining flocks to travel to Arctic Canada. Migration routes may be ‘hardwired’ into the brains of cuckoos, but young brent have to be shown where to go.

How are flock leaders chosen; are brent geese autocrats oligarchs or democrats? Who calls the shots even within families? We simply don’t know.