Goslings imprinted on a man instead of their mother, and followed him everywhere

Konrad Lorenz found that newly hatched geese bond to the first moving thing they see during a brief critical window, real mother or not. When he made sure he was that first sight, the goslings imprinted on him instead, waddling after him as if he were their parent.

— Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon's Ring — 1949; imprinting research published from 1935
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