Little owl perched on a sunflower in Cadiz, Andalusia, Spain.
These are leopards from Botswana, in Southern Africa, save one, which is a snow leopard from Tian Shan, Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. Can you tell which one is the snow leopard?
On looking closely at these images, you should discover that these photographs show geese flying upside down, "belly up", so to speak. The neck is twisted and only the head is in the right position. You might think that these images are faked, but it is not so.
Such a manoeuvre is a proven way of braking and is called "whiffling". Whiffling reverses the aerodynamics that normally give a bird lift when flying, causing the bird to plummet towards the ground. Whiffling allows the bird to quickly lose speed and altitude in order to land quickly or deter birds of prey.
This behaviour has not only been observed in geese, but also in various other bird species, such as the pygmy snipe, black-tailed godwit, lapwing, three species of scoter and other duck species. Isn't it incredible what Nature comes up with!
