Did you hear the joke about the guys who strapped a rhino upside-down to a helicopter, flew him across the South African hinterlands, and then won a gag award for it? Well, it's not a joke and it's actually quite cool:
A team of researchers behind an experiment that involved hanging rhinoceroses upside down, suspended in the air by their feet, has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize.
The spoof accolade borrows its name from, but is not connected with, the world-famous Nobel Prize...
The winning team of researchers, from Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Brazil, the UK and the USA, were attempting to see whether rhinos could be more safely transported when airlifted if they were suspended upside down.
As part of the experiment, led by Robin Radcliffe, a senior lecturer in wildlife and conservation medicine at Cornell University, the team sedated 12 black rhinoceroses in Namibia using aerial darts, bound their legs, and suspended them. They then measured their biomarkers for respiration and ventilation.
It turns out that transporting rhinos upside down is quite good for them and thus for critical rhino conservation efforts. Who knew?! (Presumably the rhinos knew, but since they can't talk they couldn't tell us.)
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