
Barnacle gosling’s terrifying cliff tumble - Mz
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141020-chicks-tumble-of-terror-filmed
======
jonp
"You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the
bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is
fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes" \- JBS
Haldane "On being the right size"

[http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-
size.html](http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html)

~~~
mersault
It wasn't the initial jump that concerned me, it was the ass over teakettle
action all down the rocks at the bottom that concerned me.

------
bglazer
Here's a video for those interested:

[http://www.arkive.org/barnacle-goose/branta-
leucopsis/video-...](http://www.arkive.org/barnacle-goose/branta-
leucopsis/video-17a.html)

~~~
ars
That's a different video BTW, it shows more of the preparation for leaving the
nest, but less of actual fall.

You should watch both of them (this and the one in the article).

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Isamu
Also, you can throw a mouse out of an airplane and it can walk (scamper) away
from the impact.

It's the surface-area to volume (weight) ratio. Small things have a higher
surface-area-to-weight, and therefore lower terminal velocity than big things.

There are lots of scaling effects which seem counter intuitive.

~~~
agumonkey
Recently I was reading about Terminal Velocity too. Turns out a few people
managed to survive falls at that speed
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#Surviving_falls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#Surviving_falls).

~~~
grecy
Sometimes when I'm in a plane I daydream about what body shapes I'd make in
free fall in an attempt to increase my wind resistance and decrease my
terminal velocity. I also wonder if it would be better to land on trees,
water, or a really really steep snow covered mountain.

~~~
agumonkey
I'd love to fall in small trees standing on a steep snowy surface leading to a
lake.

Or maybe having a [http://imgur.com/aLaTfIX](http://imgur.com/aLaTfIX) under
your seat ?

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granfalloon
Wow, I found this to be a great stimulus for thinking about the concept of
instinct. For some reason -- maybe it's the subtle movements by the chick to
adjust its "flight path" \-- it really makes me intuitively understand
instinct as pure mechanical inclination, rather than something more magical.

------
csdrane
That first contact with the ground... jesus. It was difficult for me to
believe that the chick they showed at the end was the same one that took the
plunge. That camera shot wouldn't have been nearly as remarkable if the chick
had died.

------
putzdown
My 16-year old son started driving a few months ago. I can identify with the
gosling's parents.

~~~
ellyagg
Me too. My 16 year old son just totaled our car on his 6th drive out on his
learner's permit. He was already nervous about driving, like those poor
goslings at the edge of the cliff.

Watch out for those unprotected lefts! It's now the third person I know who
crashed into someone during a left turn on a solid green when they were a
novice driver.

~~~
gk1
+1 for the left turns. I was involved in an accident caused by a new driver
(looked to be around 16 years old) who was making a left turn without checking
for oncoming traffic.

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jessriedel
Roughly what fraction of the goslings don't survive the fall?

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lotsofmangos
Things like this make me think of an alien David Attenborough commenting on
humans.

" _and here we have the spartans, a strange group. After birth they attempt to
drown their young in fermented grapes..._ "

------
deskamess
That initial choice.... you could feel the decision making. Gut wrenching to
watch after the first event... it kept going on and on.

Watch it without sound if possible (and add sound on the next watch!).

------
celias
Here's a RadioLab piece about cats falling out of high rise windows
[https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/94843](https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/94843)
and the wikipedia article on High-rise syndrome
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
rise_syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-rise_syndrome)

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smorrow
The smaller they are, the less hard they fall. Also: I knew there were goose
barnacles; never heard of barnacle geese before, though.

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austin_y
I don't think I've ever been disappointed by any BBC Earth material, but that
was surprisingly captivating!

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grabcocque
This, my friends, is why there's no child protection services in the goose
world.

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gagege
I read the title and thought this was going to be about some expert rock
climber called "Barnacle" Gosling.

~~~
TheHypnotist
An old sailor turned rock climber, always the thrill seeker.

