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Into Thin Air
Biologist Jessica Meir isn't just researching bar-headed geese--she's parenting them too. She's raised a brood of twelve goslings since birth, in a process known as imprinting. But the imprinting is just a tool. The real question behind Meir's research is something else: How do these geese accomplish super-bird feats of flight?
Credit: Steve McNally and Lisa Raffensperger, National Science Foundation. Images credited at video's end.
Researcher Jessica Meir obtained the geese at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in North Carolina. She stayed with them there for three weeks to begin the imprinting process and to wait until they were big enough to travel.
Credit: Jessica Meir, Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD
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Flight training for an imprinted bar-headed goose.
Credit: Joel Rabel
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Meir is surrounded by all 12 of her imprinted gosslings.
Credit: Jessica Meir, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD.
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Bar-headed geese are named for two horizontal stripes that appear across the head of adult birds.
Credit: Katie Kuker
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Comparison of flying altitude of bar-headed geese to aircraft and other birds.
Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller
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