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The “great sheep mystery”: why do dozens of sheep walk in perfect circles for days?

2022-11-24T21:26:12.191Z


The “great sheep mystery”: why do dozens of sheep walk in perfect circles for days? Created: 2022-11-24Updated: 2022-11-24 10:19 p.m By: Fabian Mueller Sheep walk in circles in Inner Mongolia, China. © Twitter @PDChina In northern China, sheep walk in a circle as if drawn with a compass. Are sound waves the reason, a bacterial infection or just boredom? A mystery so far. Beijing/Munich - They


The “great sheep mystery”: why do dozens of sheep walk in perfect circles for days?

Created: 2022-11-24Updated: 2022-11-24 10:19 p.m

By: Fabian Mueller

Sheep walk in circles in Inner Mongolia, China.

© Twitter @PDChina

In northern China, sheep walk in a circle as if drawn with a compass.

Are sound waves the reason, a bacterial infection or just boredom?

A mystery so far.

Beijing/Munich - They persistently run in circles: dozens of sheep turn one lap after the other, tirelessly, as if something were driving them.

But what actually?

This is the question asked by many people who saw a video that the Chinese state newspaper People's Daily published on Twitter.

They are footage from a surveillance camera at a sheep farm in Inner Mongolia, a region in northern China.

According to Chinese media reports, the spectacle of the animals could be seen for twelve days, but the sheep were in good health.

The shepherd reportedly said some of the animals just started and the rest followed.

But it is still unclear why the sheep marched almost continuously in a circle drawn with a compass.

Sheep run in perfect circles one behind the other for days: the “great sheep secret”

People's Daily calls the phenomenon the "great sheep mystery" and writes: "Hundreds of sheep walk in circles for 10 days in Inner Mongolia, northern China.

The sheep are healthy and the reason for the strange behavior is still a mystery.”

Theories were quickly found on the Internet: Sound waves are said to be the reason, write some.

Others want to see a connection to the so-called ant mills.

Army ants move in circles until they die of exhaustion.

Overlapping traces of scent are the trigger.

A third group claims to have identified a listeria infection as the trigger.

The bacteria can cause fever, depression and movement disorders, but veterinarians think this is highly unlikely.

Many Twitter users also speculate about animal cruelty.

Video: China: Sheep walk in circles for 12 days

According to Martin Ganter, professor at the clinic for small cloven-hoofed animals at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover,

but there is another theory in the room: the animals are simply bored, the area there offers no incentive, no grass, no food, just bare, brownish sand, he told the

RND

.

The fact that sheep move together in one direction is considered typical behavior of a flock.

But whether that alone explains the perfect sheep circle - that remains the case, as the Chinese state medium is right for once, the "great sheep secret".

(fmu)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-24

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