Tiergarten Nürnberg

Powerful fliers 

Bar-headed Geese spend winter in the northwest of India, which is almost at sea level. Then they fly, without needing time to acclimatise to their breeding grounds, in the high-lying lakes of Tibet, and regularly cross over the 8,000m high mountains of the Himalayas.

The extraordinary performance of the Bar-headed Geese is due to the special design of their respiratory organs: they have additional air sacs behind their lungs, so that oxygen-rich air can be pumped back and forth. This improves the transfer of oxygen into their bloodstream. Additionally, they can breathe very quickly: when hyperventilating, they do not faint - unlike us humans - because it does not narrow their blood vessels. Of course, their flight muscles are adapted to this extreme endurance.