Is it better to fly a rhino upside down?
The pulmonary and metabolic effects of suspension by the feet compared with lateral recumbency in immobilized black rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) captured by aerial darting
Conservation vets checked whether it is healthier for sleeping rhinos to be flown upside down by their feet or lie on their side.
Ig Nobel 2021
To move endangered black rhinos to safer areas in Namibia, conservationists sometimes sedate them and fly them under a helicopter, hanging gently by their feet. Vets measured the sleeping rhinos’ breathing and blood oxygen while hanging upside down and while lying on their side.
Hanging by the feet was slightly better for the rhinos’ breathing, not worse. Flying feet-first: the comfiest economy seat for a two-tonne passenger.
Upside down is the right way up, for rhinos in the air.