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Twenty plus years ago I was hiking on the North York Moors in England, which is an area where herds of sheep live wild on the moorland for most of the year. I c

Twenty plus years ago I was hiking on the North York Moors in England, which is an area where herds of sheep live wild on the moorland for most of the year. I came to a cattle grid (cattle guard in the US [1]) and a group of sheep were crowded at one side, obviously wanting to cross but unable to do so. Lots of baaaing and jostling. Then one of the sheep did an amazing thing: it lay down and rolled it's body over the cattle grid, then stood at the other side staring at the rest of the group. They didn't follow, and eventually drifted away. I've never seen or heard of that happening before or since. I sometimes wonder if that sheep was some kind of once-in-a-generation freak: a kind of Leonardo da Vinci outlier. I like sheep. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_grid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_grid

tokenizerrr 10y ago
From the article you linked: > While these barriers are usually effective for cattle,[23] they can fail due to ingenious animals. Sheep searching for food have been known to roll over grids, jump across them, step carefully into the spaces[24] or run along the side of grids as wide as 8 feet (2.4 m). [24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rIbZWblPaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rIbZWblPaA
- tnorthcutt 10y ago
  The very next video youtube suggested shows two sheep, surrounded by lush green fields, climbing onto steep, wet rocks on a hillside in an attempt to reach some grass in the middle of the rocks. One of the sheep falls, presumably to its death or at least to a significant injury. They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2HJpGtv70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2HJpGtv70
  - oh_sigh 10y ago
    To be fair, one was a lamb which was just following the adult, and was still alive and healthy by the end of the video.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - stinos 10y ago
    They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. Not unlike us. There's a striking resemblence between that video and the many, many 'fail' videos featuring humans.
  - maxxxxx 10y ago
    That seems like human explorers. Some rech their goal and a lot of them die. I wouldn't call this dumb.
  - gech 10y ago
    This is the missing link to goats
  - true_religion 10y ago
    > One of the sheep falls, presumably to its death or at least to a significant injury. They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. Nope. What it looks like is that the lamb fell, but was alive in the end. The mother chased down the hillside, and found it without injury. I was surprised as well, but it looks like sheep can survive little tumbles like that.
- andyjohnson0 10y ago
  Thanks. I only included the wikipedia link for clarity due to the different terminology used across the world. But its interesting to know that what I saw is not as unusual as I thought.
catmanjan 10y ago
There are stories of one sheep doing this in the UK and then a week later all of them doing it - usually the solution is to dig the void under the grid deeper so the sheep don't dare risk falling.

tokenizerrr 10y ago

From the article you linked: > While these barriers are usually effective for cattle,[23] they can fail due to ingenious animals. Sheep searching for food have been known to roll over grids, jump across them, step carefully into the spaces[24] or run along the side of grids as wide as 8 feet (2.4 m). [24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rIbZWblPaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rIbZWblPaA

tnorthcutt 10y ago
The very next video youtube suggested shows two sheep, surrounded by lush green fields, climbing onto steep, wet rocks on a hillside in an attempt to reach some grass in the middle of the rocks. One of the sheep falls, presumably to its death or at least to a significant injury. They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2HJpGtv70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2HJpGtv70
- oh_sigh 10y ago
  To be fair, one was a lamb which was just following the adult, and was still alive and healthy by the end of the video.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- stinos 10y ago
  They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. Not unlike us. There's a striking resemblence between that video and the many, many 'fail' videos featuring humans.
- maxxxxx 10y ago
  That seems like human explorers. Some rech their goal and a lot of them die. I wouldn't call this dumb.
- gech 10y ago
  This is the missing link to goats
- true_religion 10y ago
  > One of the sheep falls, presumably to its death or at least to a significant injury. They may be clever, but they seem... dumb. Nope. What it looks like is that the lamb fell, but was alive in the end. The mother chased down the hillside, and found it without injury. I was surprised as well, but it looks like sheep can survive little tumbles like that.
andyjohnson0 10y ago
Thanks. I only included the wikipedia link for clarity due to the different terminology used across the world. But its interesting to know that what I saw is not as unusual as I thought.

catmanjan 10y ago

There are stories of one sheep doing this in the UK and then a week later all of them doing it - usually the solution is to dig the void under the grid deeper so the sheep don't dare risk falling.