Bizarre video footage captured on a Chinese farm shows a group of sheep walking in circles for almost two weeks without stopping. The strange behavior has observers around the globe and the sheep’s owner utterly perplexed as they try to determine what’s behind it.
The footage was taken in early November 2022 in northern China.
The clip, originally shared by a Chinese news portal named People’s Daily China, showed surveillance footage of a farm where a herd of sheep was seen walking in a neat circle.
According to reports, the sheep were spotted circling in a bizarre manner for 12 days. The caption shared alongside the video mentioned that the video was shot in North China’s Inner Mongolia
The unexplained phenomenon happened on the 13th barn of the 34 barns on the farm. Miao, the owner of the animals, said that at first a few sheep began to circle, and then the whole flock joined.
Listeriosis disease is known to cause such circling behavior in sheep, which is why it is also known as “circling disease,” but the state-run newspaper People’s Daily noted that the sheep were healthy and the reason for the behavior is unknown.
In a separate report, a scientist claimed to have solved the mystery behind eerie footage of a huge flock of sheep walking in a circle for 12 straight days in China.
Explaining this bizarre behavior, Matt Bell, a professor, and director at the Department of Agriculture at Hartpury University, in Gloucester, England, told Newsweek,
“It looks like the sheep are in the pen for long periods, and this might lead to stereotypic behavior, with the repeated circling due to frustration about being in the pen and limited [as to where they can go]. This is not good. Then the other sheep join as they are flock animals and bond or join their friends.”
Sheep exhibit flock mentality, which means they move along with the herd, protecting an individual animal from predators.
Watch the video below for more details:
The great sheep mystery! Hundreds of sheep walk in a circle for over 10 days in N China’s Inner Mongolia. The sheep are healthy and the reason for the weird behavior is still a mystery. pic.twitter.com/8Jg7yOPmGK
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) November 16, 2022
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