It's a Long Way Down, Baby.
December 11, 2014 9:20 PM Subscribe
The Descent of the Barnacle Goose, a gosling makes a long freefall and bouncy trip down a cliff-face to leave the nest. It is all sorts of wrong, and unexpectedly cute. [via]
IT MAKES PATHETIC SQUEAK NOISES AS IT SLAMS INTO THE CLIFFFACE.
Dear god. He seemed all right at the end, although I imagine it has a good amount of healing to do. All I can say is, after starting out life like that, at least from this point on it's all downhi-- oh my god FORGET I SAID THAT
posted by JHarris at 9:33 PM on December 11, 2014 [5 favorites]
Dear god. He seemed all right at the end, although I imagine it has a good amount of healing to do. All I can say is, after starting out life like that, at least from this point on it's all downhi-- oh my god FORGET I SAID THAT
posted by JHarris at 9:33 PM on December 11, 2014 [5 favorites]
Wait, what?? How the hell has this species managed to keep existing, if this is typical nesting behavior? This is like the Darwin Awards: Avian Edition.
posted by biddeford at 9:34 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by biddeford at 9:34 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wait, what?? How the hell has this species managed to keep existing, if this is typical nesting behavior?
They chose this spot because it kept them safe from arctic foxes. The downside was the cliff tumble. From memory, although this one made it, there were a couple that didn't.
I started to watch this series with my partner and she couldn't get through it. This was bad enough but the following whale gang rape and consequent infant crushing sequence was the straw that broke the camels back.
Shame really, I thought it was interesting.
posted by unliteral at 9:48 PM on December 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
They chose this spot because it kept them safe from arctic foxes. The downside was the cliff tumble. From memory, although this one made it, there were a couple that didn't.
I started to watch this series with my partner and she couldn't get through it. This was bad enough but the following whale gang rape and consequent infant crushing sequence was the straw that broke the camels back.
Shame really, I thought it was interesting.
posted by unliteral at 9:48 PM on December 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
My boy threw himself off the bed while I was folding laundry. I caught him by the ankle, hoisted him up, and we laughed. Then I dropped him on his head. No damage, bones are rubbery when you are new. I am not watching this again.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 10:18 PM on December 11, 2014
posted by Mr. Yuck at 10:18 PM on December 11, 2014
I'm normally all for videos of fluffy creatures having mishaps, but I don't really find this cute. It's really dangerous for the poor things -- and many of them don't survive it. It could be seriously injured. It's interesting, but I don't really find a chick bashing repeatedly, with great force, into a cliffside cute. Not the harmless, rolling tumble I expected.
Nature red in tooth and claw in all that, though. Evolution doesn't care for our sensibilities, or anyone's. I'd like to see this documentary one day but I think being set up to expect something cute, it was more depressing than I would find it normally.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:30 PM on December 11, 2014 [4 favorites]
Nature red in tooth and claw in all that, though. Evolution doesn't care for our sensibilities, or anyone's. I'd like to see this documentary one day but I think being set up to expect something cute, it was more depressing than I would find it normally.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:30 PM on December 11, 2014 [4 favorites]
Good form, he's looking good, looking good...no, no he's not.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:56 PM on December 11, 2014
posted by gottabefunky at 10:56 PM on December 11, 2014
A Barnacle Goose's lot in life is grim.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:00 PM on December 11, 2014
posted by five fresh fish at 11:00 PM on December 11, 2014
It's like life imitating art. I was always optimistic about the poor kiwi's chances in the short film but my wife thinks he died.
posted by flyingfox at 11:02 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by flyingfox at 11:02 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Fucking dinosaurs.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:29 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mr_roboto at 11:29 PM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Remember, this is the system that was the best fit for their environment and biological challenges. All the other systems worked worse than this, on average.
You know if pre-human primates did this sort of thing, and then evolved into humans, there'd be a big ol' freefall at the end of a birthing table, and expectant mothers would bully each other in online forums deciding that maybe a 400-foot-drop wasn't the best thing for a newborn baby. "It's not natural to get caught immediately by a nurse and swaddled!" they'd say. Others would point to studies showing increased survivability for babies that didn't fall hundreds of feet.
People like me would bemoan the end of human evolution because we didn't cull, at birth, the ones who weren't meant to survive in this world because they couldn't survive a dang 400-foot drop, and we'd mostly say this to ourselves after encountering a particularly stupid specimen of humanity at a fast-food restaurant. "Geez, somebody wasn't dropped on their head as a child." Dropping babies would be good luck, not the cause of a low-level paranoia about permanent damage.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:43 PM on December 11, 2014 [8 favorites]
You know if pre-human primates did this sort of thing, and then evolved into humans, there'd be a big ol' freefall at the end of a birthing table, and expectant mothers would bully each other in online forums deciding that maybe a 400-foot-drop wasn't the best thing for a newborn baby. "It's not natural to get caught immediately by a nurse and swaddled!" they'd say. Others would point to studies showing increased survivability for babies that didn't fall hundreds of feet.
People like me would bemoan the end of human evolution because we didn't cull, at birth, the ones who weren't meant to survive in this world because they couldn't survive a dang 400-foot drop, and we'd mostly say this to ourselves after encountering a particularly stupid specimen of humanity at a fast-food restaurant. "Geez, somebody wasn't dropped on their head as a child." Dropping babies would be good luck, not the cause of a low-level paranoia about permanent damage.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:43 PM on December 11, 2014 [8 favorites]
Aw. Poor little dude looks no worse for wear. Our instincts are horrified by falling baby, but the mother goose's instincts would be horrified by a baby being vulnerable to predators. There must have been more babies being eaten than ones that are killed this way.
posted by bleep at 12:39 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by bleep at 12:39 AM on December 12, 2014
At one point I thought I saw teeth flying but, uh, it's a goose. Still, wow. Ouch.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on December 12, 2014
That's not flying, that's just falling with style.
posted by Ned G at 2:23 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Ned G at 2:23 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
I enjoyed the 10 minute section at the end of the BBC showing of this where we got to see how it was filmed.
They first filmed another family of geese who made it safely down. Then suddenly a beautiful fox came, chased the adults away and munched the young ones. One of the young ones was sort of cuddling into it while he was killing its siblings. Lovely stuff.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 2:24 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
They first filmed another family of geese who made it safely down. Then suddenly a beautiful fox came, chased the adults away and munched the young ones. One of the young ones was sort of cuddling into it while he was killing its siblings. Lovely stuff.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 2:24 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
One of the young ones was sort of cuddling into it while he was killing its siblings.
Well, you know, wouldn't want to die shivering.
posted by Diablevert at 2:54 AM on December 12, 2014
Well, you know, wouldn't want to die shivering.
posted by Diablevert at 2:54 AM on December 12, 2014
Remember, this is the system that was the best fit for their environment and biological challenges. All the other systems worked worse than this, on average.
Exactly.
I wouldn't be surprised if the odds were something like:
• Tumble from the predator free cliff nest = 38% mortality rate
• Get eaten by an arctic fox in ground nest = 51% mortality rate
(...and that's nothing compared to the horror with which other species are watching videos on humans choice to raise their young in (gasp!) civilization.)
posted by fairmettle at 3:34 AM on December 12, 2014
Exactly.
I wouldn't be surprised if the odds were something like:
• Tumble from the predator free cliff nest = 38% mortality rate
• Get eaten by an arctic fox in ground nest = 51% mortality rate
(...and that's nothing compared to the horror with which other species are watching videos on humans choice to raise their young in (gasp!) civilization.)
posted by fairmettle at 3:34 AM on December 12, 2014
But why don't they stay in the cliff nest until their wings are more developed? What is the advantage of bailing out early?
posted by biffa at 3:51 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by biffa at 3:51 AM on December 12, 2014
Early bird gets the worm, biffa. No one likes a slacker. Time's a-wasting, get a jump on it.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:03 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by five fresh fish at 4:03 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
Before the base-jumping goose there was the snowboarding crow.
posted by elgilito at 4:13 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by elgilito at 4:13 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
But why don't they stay in the cliff nest until their wings are more developed? What is the advantage of bailing out early?
Geese do not feed their young (the goslings have to get the food themselves), and there is no food on the cliffs.
posted by dhens at 4:21 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
Geese do not feed their young (the goslings have to get the food themselves), and there is no food on the cliffs.
posted by dhens at 4:21 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
The adult geese are quite pretty.
posted by quaking fajita at 5:02 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by quaking fajita at 5:02 AM on December 12, 2014
He's probably built tough enough to not be hurt.
He's small, so his mass (which translates into forces acting on him when slamming into the rocks) is much lower relative to the cross-section area of his bones (which translates into their strength). And with all the air sacks and hollow bones, he's much lighter than a comparatively sized mammal. Also, all these fluffy feathers increase the drag coefficient. So his terminal velocity is probably in the 40 mph ballpark, not 120 as with humans.
posted by hat_eater at 5:18 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
He's small, so his mass (which translates into forces acting on him when slamming into the rocks) is much lower relative to the cross-section area of his bones (which translates into their strength). And with all the air sacks and hollow bones, he's much lighter than a comparatively sized mammal. Also, all these fluffy feathers increase the drag coefficient. So his terminal velocity is probably in the 40 mph ballpark, not 120 as with humans.
posted by hat_eater at 5:18 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
And I thought wood ducklings were crazy; that's some serious Wile E. Coyote shit there.
posted by TedW at 5:38 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by TedW at 5:38 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
Good Lord!! I still hold my seven year old boy's hand as we walk down the stairs every morning. He's usually still asleep and not THAT in control of his gangly legs. I would not make a good goose mama.
posted by pearlybob at 5:50 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by pearlybob at 5:50 AM on December 12, 2014
Wow, I actually heard myself make an involuntary distressed noise at the first bounce.
posted by marginaliana at 6:14 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by marginaliana at 6:14 AM on December 12, 2014 [2 favorites]
Thanks dhens, I maybe should have looked that up myself...
posted by biffa at 6:22 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by biffa at 6:22 AM on December 12, 2014
Eh, it reaches terminal velocity pretty quickly.
And again.
And again.
And again. Ouch. Obligatory Cow and Chicken free fall.
Still, it doesn’t have quite the warm welcome to the world, baby giraffes must experience (what, 2 meters of free fall?).
posted by bouvin at 11:06 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
And again.
And again.
And again. Ouch. Obligatory Cow and Chicken free fall.
Still, it doesn’t have quite the warm welcome to the world, baby giraffes must experience (what, 2 meters of free fall?).
posted by bouvin at 11:06 AM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
And again. ..SQUEAK
And again. PEEP!
And again. SQUEAK (repeat)
posted by Sunburnt at 4:15 PM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
And again. PEEP!
And again. SQUEAK (repeat)
posted by Sunburnt at 4:15 PM on December 12, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by quin at 9:33 PM on December 11, 2014