Believe it or not?

Though rare, it does indeed happen…

Animals rain down from above.

Creepy!

Or is it perhaps…

Totally natural?

[via io9] When It Rains Animals: The Science of True Weather Weirdness

Animals falling from the sky like oversized organic raindrops may seem like the stuff of urban legends and Paul Thomas Anderson movies, but it’s an absolutely real phenomenon…probably. Here’s a rundown of nature’s most bizarre and seemingly impossible weather.

When It Actually Rains Cats and Dogs

Accounts of animals mysteriously falling from the sky are found throughout the history of many cultures – the first century Roman writer Pliny the Elder mentions rainstorms of frogs and fish. It’s a rare occurrence, to be sure, but there are engravings of raining animals dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Even just looking at the last decade turns up a bunch of examples of this strange phenomenon. There are tons of eyewitness accounts throughout history that support their existence – even if some, perhaps even most of them are false or mistaken in some way, there’s still a lot of evidence to support the idea that animals really do sometimes rain from the sky.

[...]

Up the Waterspout

For what was likely little more than a bit of idle speculation, Ampère was more or less correct. The currently favored explanation for animal precipitation involves waterspouts, a special type of tornado that forms over bodies of water. These are capable of sucking up animals in their path and transporting them high up in the air. Because these waterspouts and other types of tornadoes are on the move, when they do eventually break open and release their unwilling passengers, the animals will be far away from their original habitat, hence the appearance of animals raining from nowhere.

That’s the probable cause of the majority of these animal rainstorms, and the aquatic nature of these waterspouts helps explain why most of these storms seem to involve either fish or frogs. As for other, even rarer animal storms like those involving worms or spiders, it’s easy enough to invoke other types of whirlwinds or just a particularly violent updraft to get the animals high enough to rain back down.[...][Read More - Find out the TRUTH behind the phenomenon by clicking HERE!]

Stop panicking! (Though the mere THOUGHT of raining spiders makes ‘not panicking’…NOT POSSIBLE)

However when we are talking about lions, zebras, hippos and giraffes fall down from above?

Just know, though it may seem unlikely at the time…

An apocalypse is NOT at hand.

Nope.

You see, there is a simple explanation for raining zoo animals?

They are after…

The Penguins.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted hits theaters on June 8th, 2012.

Cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric The Entertainer, Andy Richter, Frances McDormand

Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple and of course, King Julien, Maurice and the Penguins are all along for the comedic adventure. Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent — Madagascar style.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted trailer courtesy Paramount Pictures.

Silly zoo animals.

Don’t you know?

Penguins…