The remote highlands of Oersted Dahl Valley in Greenland are the scene of one of the deadliest trials an animal is destined to face at the start of its life.
The barnacle goose chose the top of the highest and steepest rock for its nest. Such extreme isolation is the only way to protect your brood from predators on the ground. But you will have to pay a high price for this.
But the peak of the steep cliff has nothing to feed on, and her babies, like herself, feed exclusively on grass. And to get to it, the goslings will have to survive a 120-meter descent, and they learn to fly only after 8 weeks. So you have to jump down. Their mother flies to the foot of a sheer cliff and calls on the goslings to follow her. Instinct pushes them to obey her call and jump from a dizzying height of 120 meters – the height of a 45-story skyscraper.
The gosling spreads its body and flaps its little wings a little to slow down the descent a little and reduce the force of the inevitable blows. If the first blow falls on the stomach, he will certainly survive the fall.
In the future, these kids will have to look into the face of danger more than once. But at just 2 days old, they are already experiencing the greatest test of their lives. This is perhaps one of the most extreme survival strategies in nature.
Watch an excerpt from the BBC film Life Story:
