So, why are the geese doing this? Likely, says Ross, it’s to protect their sensitive beaks from being damaged with a direct hit — an injury which could easily be life-threatening.

This behavior has been observed in other species by other researchers in the past, but the video above may offer even more insight into just how clever this group of geese is.

“A few individuals seem to be actually reacting to individual hailstones,” Ross told Live Science. “So not only are they looking up into the sky to reduce their profile, but perhaps when a hailstone was imminently going to hit them in the face, they dodge[d] it really quickly.”

While there’s still more to be studied about this behavior, there seems to be one obvious takeaway — it pays to look up.

Joby Rohrer and his family were enjoying a day of diving off the coast of Lanai, Hawaii, when they spotted something that made them change their plans.

There, in the water not far from them, was a massive whale shark. Wrapped around her was a large rope, strangling her body.

What Rohrer didn’t know at the time was that, a few weeks earlier, this same animal had been spotted. Wildlife officials were urging the public to alert them if she was sighted again.

“Lupita is a rescue dog I found on the streets who was abused previously,” her owner, Miranda Sanchez, told The Dodo.

That was two years ago, and things since then have never been better. But recently Sanchez realized that there was an opportunity to celebrate her little pup in an extra special way — by throwing her a quinceañera party, and inviting all their pals.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office posted about the (unfortunately) not-too-unusual incident involving an opportunistic bear, hoping others take note.

“We’ve often warned that leaving your car unlocked makes it easier for thieves to steal items, but, as we’ve now seen twice this past week, it also makes it easier for bears to climb in and make themselves at home,” officials wrote online.

It was far from a clean getaway for this particular bear. After entering the car, he helped himself to some snacks the owner had left behind, accidentally closing the door behind him in the process. Unable to escape, he reportedly took a nap.

The responding officers needed to free him. As seen in this video, they used a rope to open the car’s door from a safe distance:

While little is known for certain about the pug, or why he ran away from his home in Escobedo, Mexico, we can only guess that the coziness of domestic life was too confining for his adventuresome spirit. This pup evidently wanted to see the world.

But he didn’t make it far — and the pup’s time as a carefree traveler was short-lived.

Turns out, a pair of local garbage collectors from Red Ambiental, a waste management service, spotted the dog out and about on his own and decided to “rescue” him. Since he wasn’t wearing a collar, they plopped him into the cab of their garbage truck and continued along their route as a trio.

And that’s how the liberty-seeking pug found himself here:

It wasn’t long before local animal control officers showed up, but they soon learned they were going to need a much larger truck to gather this herd. They were simply outnumbered.

The fierce munching continued for nearly another hour, until the owner of the goats arrived with a trailer.

As it turns out, the animals are actually part of a land-clearing company called We Rent Goats, which brings in herds of goats to eat weeds or other overgrown areas. As shown by their clear passion for eating, they seem glad to oblige.

Thankfully, the tiny dog will be just fine since she got medical treatment right away — but the situation could have been much worse given her size. Marijuana is toxic to dogs, and severe side effects from exposure can include tremors, seizures and even comas.

With the availability of marijuana increasing, whether medicinally or otherwise, cases of pet poisoning are also on the rise, says Lynn Buzhardt, DVM, of the Veterinary Centers of America.

“The idea of pets getting high on marijuana may seem comical, but it’s no laughing matter,” Buzhardt warns. “The bottom line when it comes to marijuana use and pets is: Be careful. Keep all forms of marijuana, medical or recreational, out of reach of your pet.”

Marineland is a park that’s steeped in controversy — a young beluga has wasted away and died, and a walrus has appeared emaciated and sickly during performances. The ocean-themed amusement park, which is based in Ontario, Canada, has also been cited for numerous counts of animal cruelty for its mistreatment of land animals, including birds, bears, deer and bison. And now, animal welfare advocates have even more to worry about.

Over the past 12 months, several animals have died, including a beluga and a walrus, according to Phil Demers, a former senior marine mammal trainer at Marineland — yet the park hasn’t uttered a word about these deaths.

In 2016, Tessie Johnson and her family went to KC Pet Project, a shelter in Kansas City, Missouri, to adopt a dog. Their eyes immediately fell on a 4-month-old Rottweiler puppy with a pronounced underbite, who’d been picked up as a stray.

“He was the cutest thing ever,” Johnson told The Dodo. “They were saying that normally it’s easy to have puppies adopted because everyone loves puppies. But because of his teeth, a lot of people were turned off by him. And because he’s a Rottie, people also weren’t interested.”

The woman, a local resident named Rhonda, took him to a vet right away to get him help. She knew the little guy had so much more life left, so she contacted Erin Brinkley-Burgardt, founder of Hog Haven Farm, a pig rescue and sanctuary based in Colorado.

“He had a broken jaw, so Rhonda cared for him for about three weeks to help [him] heal,” Brinkley-Burgardt told The Dodo. “Then, on July 26, we met halfway so I could bring him back to the sanctuary.”

The bruised little piglet had come a long way in three weeks, and Brinkley-Burgardt was so excited to finally meet him. Traveling to a new place, though, was scary for him.

It was a heart-wrenching incident just waiting to happen.

During a circus performance in Moscow, Russia, late last month, a tiger and a lion shocked the audience when they started attacking one another in the ring.

A video of the performance shows a trainer leading a young lion across the ring past a tiger, who was seated at the sidelines. As the lion passes, the tiger suddenly leaps across and pounces on top of the lion, knocking him over onto the ground and going for his throat.

Sunny and Georgia could not be more different if they tried. While 7-year-old Sunny, an American Staffordshire terrier, is incredibly adventurous and always excited to greet any new people who cross her path, 8-year-old Georgia, a Chihuahua, is much more cautious and reserved, and tends to follow behind her sister, letting her take the lead in most situations. Despite their differences, the pair could not love each other more, and get incredibly upset any time they’re apart.

“They are very sweet,” Lavenda Denney, executive director of the SPCA of Winchester, Frederick and Clarke Counties, told The Dodo. “They give kisses and are very expressive. When you walk to their kennels they quit barking and tilt their heads to the side to check you out. Big happy puppies.”

Country and Zeus are handling shelter life fairly well due to their sweet and goofy personalities, and they rarely have any problems — unless someone tries to separate them. As soon as the brothers are apart, even if it’s just for a little while, they whine and cry endlessly until they’re finally reunited. They love each other so much, and they’re not afraid to let everyone know it.

While corn snakes are common pets, in the wild they’re native to the southeastern U.S., which means the snake would struggle to survive on her own in the colder Indiana climate. The man then noticed another corn snake nearby who had already passed away, and that’s when he knew that he had to take her with him.

The man took the snake and transferred her into the care of his son and his son’s girlfriend, Avery Cook, who both have experience caring for reptiles. As soon as they saw her and heard her rescue story, they immediately agreed to take her in.

Since the advent of the consumer drone (not so long ago, really), making a purchasing decision around new flying machine has involved weighing a list of compromises. Want high quality images? You’re going to have a big drone that’s tough to maneuver. Want something portable? Your footage will look like garbage. Want something easy to fly? You’re getting a glorified toy that will fall apart in a light breeze.

DJI, the world’s leading manufacturer of consumer drones, tried to solve this last year with the Mavic Pro. While that easy-to-fly, foldable drone did check many of the boxes, the camera wasn’t stellar. With this year’s Mavic Air, however, DJI has finally arrived at a product design with just the right mix of flyability, portability, and image quality. In other words, the DJI Mavic Air is where all drone-shopping quests should begin, and it’s also where most of them should end.

Going Up