In China, the video has gone popular on social media. Sheep have been circling a property in the country's north for more than two weeks. According to local media, this is an unusual and puzzling conduct.
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| [Mysterious Chinese video of sheep circling] |
Unusual music for a strange round, these black and gray photographs captured by a security camera of a farm in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, sparked debate in the local press before being released on the People's Daily Twitter account on November 16.
"For more than 10 days, hundreds of sheep have been traveling in a circle (...) this peculiar conduct remains a big mystery," wrote the Chinese Communist Party journal at the time.
The shepherdess was taken aback by the enigma. According to Ms. Miao, the unusual carousel would have begun on November 4 with a few animals, then swiftly expanded to include practically the whole herd from the same enclosure. A complete circle in the direction of the hands of a clock that only concerns the enclosure number 13 - which is not invented -, out of the 34 that this breeding counts.
So, what exactly happened? What caused the ovidae to turn? Herds seldom gallop in circles, so it's no wonder when an animal becomes dizzy, according to experts. It is even a disease, or diseases linked to bacteria in spoiled fodder: polycephaly, which parasitizes one of the hemispheres of the brain and causes this circular movement, the latter being usually associated with stiff movements and a vision problem that prevents the animal from following its companions; or listeriosis, which also causes this circular walk.
Except that in the case of listeriosis, the animal usually dies within 24 to 48 hours of symptoms appearing. Even so, they turn, or at least the sheep did for more than two weeks.
As a result, some local media outlets, including as the 163.com site, have proposed another explanation: the tornado effect, which is directed by the herd's desire for self-preservation, like reindeer circling about the steppe to protect the most vulnerable among them. of predators' admission into the circle What applies to wild animals, does it apply to ovidae in captivity? Did one of them get afraid and begin to turn, pulling the herd into delirium? A case to be followed.