They're remarkably standoffish outside of the city. They'll scurry as soon as you come close, unless they're nesting, at which point they stand forlorn a marked distance away from their nest waiting for you to leave.
Oddly enough, within town, they're remarkably tame. Maybe with enough humans around, they learn that we're not a threat, and it's costly to evade a non threat. Likewise the turkeys. My daily bike commute goes past a public golf course, and there's usually a pair of cranes there, sometimes with little ones. They ignore me.
I suspect that depends on the nesting status. Long ago I worked in an office building where a mated pair would frequently raise their chicks outside the front door, and before the eggs hatched they would aggressively harass anyone walking to the building.
I've heard this a lot about geese and swans. It doesn't match my experience at all. These birds won't just randomly attack you, but they will stand their ground and defend themselves and their families. I've come to believe the people who think these birds are aggressive are either the bully kids who chase ducks and pigeons but were shocked when a goose refused to be bullied, or people with zero empathy or respect and can't understand not to get in another animal's face or at least understand they don't want you to come any closer.
I live near a lake with lots of Swans. There is always one solitary one who is just into threatening everybody. Even outside breeding season and with no kids around. But I suspect he wasn't born this way, but some kids may have hit him with rocks or similar.
The problem isn't that they defend themselves. The problem is that they frequently decide to nest within 3 feet of the bicycle/running trail regardless of how much green space is in the park.
During nesting season, the entire back half of my backyard is effectively inaccessible because the Canada geese will attack you if you come within hundreds of feet of their nest. They are also utterly fearless and would also attack cars that come too far down the driveway (while still being nowhere near the nest.)
Their behavior definitely varies situationally, I have been to parks where there were hundreds of them and the only problem from them was the enormous amount of feces.
My kids love that game! But it's not destroying lives, more like committing a series of naughty pranks (like, you can sneak into a TV studio and interrupt a broadcast by honking and flapping about).
I think you mean the Untitled Goose Game? That's a fun short indie game where you are in control of the goose. If someone associates those actions with real life geese, there's some big disconnect about how the world works.
It's also unreasonable to describe the actions of the goose in the game as "destroying lives". They range from friendly interactions to harmless pranks to very mild revenge on people who are mean to the player character.
I mean, as far as I'm concerned they're entitled to be. I'd be pretty pissed off too if I was forced to nest in a ditch between the highway and the Walmart parking lot.
