The adult Canada geese are still there, paired up and looking every bit the part of responsible would-be parents. But the nurseries appear empty. Meanwhile, ducklings seem to be doing just fine, paddling around under their mothers' watchful eyes like nothing's changed. So what gives?

The suspect list reads like a nature documentary villain lineup: raccoons, ravens, coyotes, snapping turtles — Golden Gate Park has no shortage of creatures happy to make a meal of an unguarded egg or a slow-moving gosling. The park's heron nests already have metal predator guards banded around their tree trunks, a tacit acknowledgment that ground-level wildlife faces real threats. Geese, which nest on the ground, don't get that luxury.

There's also the question of whether any population management efforts — like egg oiling, which prevents hatching without removing nests — are playing a role. City agencies have used such methods in the past to manage Canada goose populations in urban parks across the country, though it's unclear whether Rec & Park is actively doing so at Blue Heron Lake.

Ducks may simply have a structural advantage here. They're smaller, more agile, and their nests can be better concealed. Goslings, by contrast, are comparatively large and slow targets on open ground — basically hors d'oeuvres for a motivated raccoon.

This isn't exactly a fiscal policy story, but it is a government accountability one. San Francisco spends serious money maintaining Golden Gate Park as a public treasure — and the wildlife is part of what makes it special. If predator populations are out of balance or quiet management programs are thinning the goose population without public awareness, residents deserve to know.

Nature is messy, and urban ecosystems are messier. But when a species that was reliably raising families at a beloved city lake just... stops, it's worth asking questions. Even if the answer turns out to be "raccoons are really good at their jobs."