Eerie Video of Bizarre Sheep

Phenomenon Has The World Running

in Circles
NATURE 23 November 2022 By CARLY CASSELLA

Trending News

Expert Proposes a Method For

Telling if We All Live in a Computer
Program
A circle of sheep in Mongolia. (People's Daily) PHYSICS 2 days ago

To be a sheep is to blindly follow the crowd. But is a sheep's sheepiness really

It's Official: Scientists Confirm a
enough to make an entire flock walk around in a circle non-stop for days on
New Expanded Scale of
end? Measurement
That's a mystery the internet has pondered for about a week now and solving it PHYSICS 3 days ago
has proved more difficult than you'd expect.
One of The World's Worst Parasites
On 17 November, a news outlet run by the Chinese state, called People's Daily, May Hide an Amazing Healing Effect
shared an eerie video on Twitter of dozens of sheep in Mongolia strolling
HEALTH 3 days ago
around in tight, almost perfect concentric circles.

At the time the video was released, the flock had been tracing the shape for
more than 10 days, and it was freaking the farm owners out.

People's Daily, China

@PDChina · Follow We value your privacy
China state-affiliated media
We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as cookies and process personal data,
The great
such as sheep mystery!
unique identifiers Hundreds
and standard of sheep
information sent bywalk
a device for personalised ads and content, ad and
content measurement, and audience insights, as well as to develop and improve products.
in a circle for over 10 days in N China's Inner
Mongolia. The
With your sheep
permission weare healthy
and our partnersand theprecise
may use reason for data and identification through device
geolocation
the weird behavior
scanning. is still
You may click a mystery.
to consent to our and our partners’ processing as described above. Alternatively you may
access more detailed information and change your preferences before consenting or to refuse consenting.

Please note that some processing of your personal data may not require your consent, but you have a right to
object to such processing. Your preferences will apply to this website only. You can change your preferences at
any time by returning to this site or visit our privacy policy.

MORE OPTIONS AGREE

The media could not be played.

Reload

2:44 PM · Nov 16, 2022

2.7K Reply Copy link

Read 473 replies

Some folks on the internet suggested the sheep were entering a death spiral
like ants sometimes do.

Others suggested the ruminant's were suffering from 'circling disease'. This
disease is caused by soil bacteria that can infect one side of an animal's brain,
causing a lean toward the affected side. Yet usually, in an outbreak of circling
disease, only a few percent of sheep are impacted, and they tend to follow their
own circling pattern, dying after just a few days.

In Mongolia, dozens of sheep were found walking in a circle, and media outlets
have been reporting that the animals did so for 12 days straight, with no details
as to how the sheep were eating, drinking, or relieving themselves during that
time. For all we know, they are still going.

"As soon as I looked at it, I thought, 'I've never seen sheep act like that,'" Emma
Doyle, a livestock expert at the University of New England in Armidale,
Australia, told Nick Kilvert at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"It seems a bit dodgy. It looks sort of set up where they've put something in the
middle to stop them going in."

At times, however, images of the sheep shared by other outlets show

individuals standing in the middle of the circle as though frozen in action.

Matt Bell, an agricultural scientist at Hartpury University in England, doesn't

necessarily think the mystery is a hoax. He told Robyn White at Newsweek that
after sheep are cooped up in a pen for extended lengths of time, they might
grow frustrated and start pacing in a circle.

This is a common symptom seen in wild animals held in captivity, especially

big cats. It's known as zoochosis, and it can lead to repetitive behavior that
doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Once a herding animal starts acting this
way, it might even catch on like some weird contagion.

"Then the other sheep join as they are flock animals and bond or join their
friends," Bell explains.

According to UK Metro, the owner of the sheep in Mongolia noticed more and
more individuals joining the ring as the days went on. This supports Bell's
explanation. And yet no other pen of sheep on the same property was acting
this way, according to news reports. It was only this one group.

The endless ring of ambling sheep is reminiscent of another odd event that was
captured last year in East Sussex. Images from this time show a flock of sheep
standing still and calm within a perfectly-formed circle.

In that particular case, however, it turned out the owner of the sheep had
sprinkled the livestock's food in rings, causing the flock to group in a sphere.

No such explanation exists for the circling flock in Mongolia. Without more
details, 'the great sheep mystery' will live on.