In recent weeks, a video showing a herd of sheep walking in circles for 12 days. The phenomenon astonished hundreds of people on the internet because the animals did not stop to eat or sleep.
The video was captured on a farm in Mongolia, north of China. As reported by the state media People’s Dailyin the video you can see how dozens of sheep walk in an almost perfect circle, in a clockwise direction.
Conspiracy theories were unleashed on the internet about the reason for the behavior. Some people suggested, for example, that the sheep had entered a death spiral as ants sometimes do.
They are not the only animals that walk in circles
The phenomenon is more frequent than is thought, although it is a mystery what causes it. For example, reindeer in northern Russia have been recorded walking in circles.
Another example shared on social networks was that of a population of killer whales in Pucón, Chile.
And as already mentioned, it is a fairly common phenomenon in ants. It occurs when the olfactory trail that they usually follow to return to their anthill is lost and they end up walking hungry and tired.
Why do animals do this?
There is no general explanation for animal circles, but anything from radio frequencies, bacterial infections, or even a setup has been proposed.
The middle IFLScience suggests that it could be a disease caused by a bacterium called listeriosis, which causes swelling and disorientation in the brain. However, it usually only affects a few animals that die in a few days.
Matt Bell, a professor and director of the Department of Agriculture at the University of Hartpury, in Gloucester, England, told Newsweek that the explanation could be simpler: “It seems that the sheep are in the pen for long periods and this could lead to stereotyped behavior, with repeated circling, due to frustration at being confined in the pen. This is not good. Then the other sheep join the herd like animals and merge with their peers.
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