Mass sheep suicide.

In Istanbul, Turkey nearly 1,500 sheep jumped over a cliff, 450 died, the rest survived because they landed on the dead.

First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported Friday.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher, cushioning the fall, the daily newspaper Aksam reported.

Source.

So what do you think caused this, its very weird sounding to me.

Well iori, this is very funny to me.
From my knowledge, there is a special sense in animals that moves in flocks and herds that solitary animals dont have, this sense allows them to react almost instantaneously as a herd rather than every sinlge individual acting seperately. Like when a group of deer are grazing, some of them on the outer periphery usually watch for any danger while the animals at the center do not or cannot, so when one senses danger the rest follow almost involuntarily. I read about this special behaviour somewhere, I cant recall what it is called though scientifically.
I think when one sheep leaped off the ledge then this was followed by other due to the special instint/sense I mentioned above.

Mass panic. Happens sometimes between animals living in herds, usually when they feel threatened.

similar thing happened to a herd of reindeer in the winter......i think it was canada but could have been the netherlands.........

anyway.............the herd was grazing on a plateau with a several hundred foot drop...........the next morning the shepherds came back to ck on the herd and couldn't find them.........they finally found the herd........at the bottom of the cliffs.

they theorized that the herd was spooked by a wolf pack..........and in panic they ran off the cliff.

herd mentality.


angie

woold ewe baalieve that they jumpered for the shear thrill?

Originally posted by iori_komei
In Istanbul, Turkey nearly 1,500 sheep jumped over a cliff, 450 died, the rest survived because they landed on the dead.

So what do you think caused this, its very weird sounding to me.

WOW...what an analogy... sheep(les) aimlessly wandering off a cliff.

I think it was the propaganda machine that caused this... and the drumbeat of "its for our own good"
throw in a wolf in sheeps clothing that got them all herded in one direction, then stepped aside and watched the effect...

poor sheep...
moral of this incident... it never hurts to be a late follower if the direction everyone is going is toward a cliff.

Wow!! good find, I think there's a strange animal behavior thread somewhere in fragile earth, Iori_komei you may want add a link to this thread there if you find it. (i saw a few related, but not the one I was looking for)

what's strange is the way the article is worded. "One sheep jumped then the others followed" not a herd scared, or whatever accidentally running over a cliff. very strange indeed.



[edit on 7-8-2005 by worldwatcher]

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
..moral of this incident... it never hurts to be a late follower if the direction everyone is going is toward a cliff.

I was wondering when someone was going to see the underlying meaning here.
Great post!!

You have voted LazarusTheLong for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have two more votes this month.

I think the sheeps were depressed.....

Seriously, i think the most logical explanation is that they were harrassed during the darkness and they couldnt see the edge of the cliff thanks to the darkness which may have been more than usual. So they ran of the edge because they couldnt stop when they noticed that there was a cliff.

Personly I think this was some kind of Protest against sertia with so manny being out of a job jumping over fences the whole herd was proble facing enconimal caos . Ps i just LOVe lamchops for dinner.

[edit on 8-7-2005 by Simcity4Rushour]

Originally posted by tomcat ha
I think the sheeps were depressed.....

Seriously, i think the most logical explanation is that they were harrassed during the darkness and they couldnt see the edge of the cliff thanks to the darkness which may have been more than usual. So they ran of the edge because they couldnt stop when they noticed that there was a cliff.

But didn't the article say that this all happened during the day, when the people who were supposed to be caring for them took a break to go eat lunch? If that's the case then I doubt darkness played any roll in this event. It may be funny to some to joke about this, but I think its a real shame considering the families involved. It was a group of about 26 families, I believe, who owned an average of 20 sheep each. Some of them lost their entire flock. And it's not like they have these animals insured! These families could starve to death because of this.

Normally I wouldn't feel bad for people who have herds of animals, like cattle, because I'm a sort of animal-rights guy. But I think having sheep is a good and noble job. You don't kill or hurt them at all. All you do is take their "fur" off and sell it. I feel bad for the poor sheep and especially for the poor families. When I read things like this, about bad things happening to good, hard-working people it makes me wonder why someone like Bill Gates, who has billions of dollars, doesn't go out and spend the hundred grand to buy these families some new sheep. I know I would if I had the money.

An Al Qaeda affiliated group is taking responsibility for this on their website

i think this is just a Psychotronic Testing or experiment...

What's going around that area, where Turkish shepherds reside?

Maybe some company decided to use brute (Psychotronic) force to eliminate competition...

[edit on 9-7-2005 by mwen]

Makes me wonder what those sheep know. I never heard of something like this before.

Originally posted by Seoul On Ice
An Al Qaeda affiliated group is taking responsibility for this on their website

ROFLMAO OMG That is sooooo funny.

Sounds to me like the leader of the herd jumped and the rest followed

But I never knew sheep herds had one leader... I thought that was whales or fish and stuff like that...

An Al Qaeda affiliated group is taking responsibility for this on their website

LOL!

Nothing unusual here.

Isn't this why the word 'sheep' is used to denote following someone blindly?

This is very common behavior in sheep. My parent's farm was next door to a large sheep ranch and one winter we helped them fence off the canal after they lost nearly 100 sheep in it. One went down to drink and fell through the ice. The others followed and kept going, right on in, one after another.


More here:


www.traill.uiuc.edu...
animalscience.ag.utk.edu...

What was the first sheep thinking? :p

FOX News was the real culprit - I'm sure of it!




p.s. - we're next!