A somewhat creepy video was posted on Twitter last week by the Chinese state-run outlet People’s Daily. The video shows dozens of sheep walking uniformly in a circle on a remote farm in China’s Mongolia region.
The caption to the disturbing video stated that the sheep were healthy. However, the video has captured and unnerved many people around the world.
A scientist gave one possible explanation for the questionable behavior of the sheep who have now been walking in a circle for 12 days straight.
Matt Bell, a professor 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. Then the other sheep join, as they are flock animals, and bond or join their friends.”
The sheep have been circling since Nov. 4. It is not certain whether they have stopped to eat or drinking or what their current status is as of November 21st.
One Twitter user jokingly said,
So, this is how the ancients knew where to build their stone circles… ???????? #stonecircles #ancient #sheephttps://t.co/4gaOmomuEb
— Mike Ricksecker (@MikeRicksecker) November 22, 2022
Ms. Miao, the owner of the sheep farm, said that circling sheep began with just a few animals before the rest of the flock joined in.
It should also be noted that there are 34 sheep pens at the farm and only one pen has been displaying odd behavior.
Some have thought the disturbing behavior could be linked to the bacterial disease called Listeriosis. This can cause symptoms such as depression, loss of appetite, fever, partial paralysis, and circling behavior.
However, Listeriosis typically kills an infected animal within 48 hours, so it seems that rules out the disease as the sheep have been walking in a circle for over 12 days.
