High-flying geese take low profile over Himalayas
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 05:31
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—Bar-headed geese are star fliers of the bird world. As well as being striking looking creatures, they have become famous for making incredible annual migrations over the world's highest mountain peaks, the Himalayas. This spectacular migration seems even more arduous when you consider that oxygen levels at such high altitudes plummet to less than half their value at sea-level and temperatures are far below freezing. Humans that scale the world's highest mountains without oxygen can usually only take a few steps at a time before needing to recover, while the bar-headed goose was famed to fly on past, honking as it went.