At a car park in Idaho Falls, Idaho, over 50 dead wild geese suddenly fell from the sky last Saturday night. Officials called the incident "very strange."
According to a preliminary version of the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife officers, all birds were struck by a powerful lightning strike during a thunderstorm that lasted from 7.30 pm to 8 pm. Birds, flying in a flock, fell in a limited area of 100 yards (91 meters) near the car park between Yellowstone Avenue and Lincoln Road.
“I collected 48 white geese and three Ross geese (endemic to North America),” said Officer Jacob Berle. “These are the birds that lay on the pavement. A few more remained lying on the roofs of the nearest buildings, they will be taken care of in the following days."
All geese were already dead at the moment of contact with the ground. It is very difficult to establish the cause of their death, but most are inclined to massive electric shock, that is, a lightning strike. In some birds, the stomach contents were splashed out from hitting the ground.
It is curious that in the presented photos all the carcasses of geese are clean. No blood or burn marks are visible on them.
White geese fly in large flocks and at high altitudes, so that they are almost invisible from the ground. This flock may have headed to Canada during the spring migration.
“I think this is just an accident. It is sad to see any animal dying, but fortunately, white geese are not an endangered species and there are a lot of them,”says Berle.
Promotional video:
Apart from this flock of geese, no dead birds fell from the sky that evening, according to the Idaho Department report.
Such cases were rarely recorded in history, but in 2016, a case is known when lightning struck six ducks to death in Canada during a thunderstorm. Just in case, department officials took several carcasses of geese to test them for various infections.