One modest town in the US state of matter of Idaho experience what some might deem as an apocalyptic scene over the weekend : golf testis - sized hail , hard winds , and severe smack and lightning . To add to the chaos , a flock of more than 100 geese plummeted chiliad of pes to the priming .
“ There was turmoil everywhere , ” James Brower , an official with theIdaho Department of Fish and Game(IDFG ) , tell IFLScience in an audience .
Despite the seemingly sinful circumstances , Brower say there ’s a logical explanation .
“ The goof were catch flying during the untimely clip in a ugly situation , ” he said . “ It seem the geese were struck by lightning base on the legal injury done to them . ”
When IDFG ship’s officer Jacob Berl arrived at the parking lot the Saturday after the storm , 51 geese were dead and locate within 200 yards of each other – a clue that Brower says show they were killed in an instantaneous event .
“ Had they been kill by hail or something else , we would suspect there would be injured geese still on - scene , ” he allege .
The following Monday , officer were called to a nearby laboratory adjacent to the parking pot after story of more than 60 goose had been spotted on the building ’s roof . suffer from similar injury – admit stomachs that hadreportedlyblown open – policeman believe they were also catch up with in the same storm .
Snow geesefly at high elevations , and while later in the migration season , Brower says it ’s likely they were head north to Canada for the summertime . Lightning tempest aside , these migrant waterfowl face up other challenges during their yearly pilgrim’s journey .
“ Sometimes with waterfowl we ’ll see that when a storm does appear , they will look for shelter and find that in a body of water , ” said Brower . “ When a parking lot commence glistening with water , they ’ll misidentify that for a pond and they ’ll do down really chop-chop and dive down , injuring themselves . ”
But as captured in the image , the geese also suffered burn marks – a further sign of electrocution .
What does one do with more than 100 deep-fried birds ? Take them to the dump , of course .
“ We have a wasteland discourse center with a dead animal stone pit [ in our county ] where we take our creature to be disposed of , ” said Brower , who continued that the birds are bury in the off - chance they are infected with an infectious disease .
Brower affirm that this rare effect wo n’t adversely affect universe .
“ Even though the red ink of 100 geese is a crack pitiful spot , female parent nature is a cruel brute sometimes , ” he sound out . “ We do n’t think about how tempest affect wildlife out there . This is an result that ’s not typical for us , but it can happen . Mother nature can do some uncanny things . ”
