Geese Parents Putting Their Babies Through ‘Flight School’ Has People Stressed Out
We all know that adult birds teach their babies to fly, but it's a whole other ballgame to watch them do it. One woman had people on the internet gripping the seat of the chairs over a video of adult geese teaching their goslings to fly.
The nerve-racking video is genuinely very sweet — if you can look past the fact that it was all happening on top of a tall apartment building.
Tiffany was watching from her home across the street when she noticed the family staring off the edge of the roof.
"Okay so the geese parents are trying to get them to leap off this three story building," she explained from behind the camera. Tiffany explained that this happens "every year" and follows a pretty regular pattern.
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The adult geese will fly down to the ground and then "squawk" up at their babies to try and convince them to follow. It doesn't always work, however, which means the adults can be up there for a while trying to get their babies to come down.
Again, it's a very normal thing that geese do — but that doesn't mean the comments section wasn't just a little worried about the whole plummeting-to-their-death thing. "I know it's necessary, but I'm over here STRESSED for them lol," wrote one person. "Can we start with like a curb?" someone else wondered. "They like 'nope. That’s a hard pass, Ma,'" teased another commenter. "The mother is pacing in the background like 'GREG THEY AREN'T READY YET,'" joked one person.
Teaching Goslings to Fly
We know it really seems downright impossible, but these little guys are the right age to start learning how to fly. Most geese teach their babies to fly when they are two to three months old. Which seems so young to us, but is simply their way.
Most goslings are very impressionable. They've been known to follow pretty much anything that comes into their path, whether that be dogs, cats, or even humans. If they're following their parents, this can be a good thing. It means that goslings can mimic their parents' behaviors for essential skills like swimming or diving. Most goslings will stay by their parents' side for the first year of life then grow apart from the adults. Young geese who fly together are known as "gang broods" and typically fly south together.
It's all a part of the process, you see. And while it might seem super scary, it's very normal — just don't ask us to watch them do their "flight test" without covering our eyes.
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