Sheep outsmart Britons
(Posted by adam)
The BBC reports that in Yorkshire, crafty sheep conquer cattle grids:
Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire moors have taught themselves to roll 8ft (3m) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids - and raid villagers' valley gardens.If these were Boston sheep, they'd be lucky to be alive after pulling a stunt like that....
A National Farmers' Union spokeswoman in York said: "We have never seen anything like it. We have looked at ways of improving the situation but it is very difficult. The grids are substantial bits of kit."
Photo: "2005 05 Northumberland 019" by Marjia.
Bookmark this post: Posted by adam on September 29, 2007 at 2:18 PM
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Comments
It's interesting that so many sheep are bypassing the villagers' defences this with this grid-based attack. Given that most sheep are not very smart my guess is the some L33t sheep came up with the method, probably first in a proof-of-concept roll, and then distributed it so that the little skript-lambs could just blindly follow...
Posted by: Nicko | September 29, 2007 4:10 PM
Does the BBC really think that 3m is 8ft? What are they, Imperial feet?
Posted by: Chris | September 29, 2007 11:30 PM
Shepherd: Another fair question. One thing is for sure, the sheep is not a creature of the air. They have enormous difficulty in the comparatively simple act of perchin'. (Baaa baaa... flap flap flap... whoosh... thud.) Trouble is, sheep are very dim. Once they get an idea in their 'eads, there's no shiftin' it.
Tourist: But where did they get the idea?
Shepherd: From Harold. He's that most dangerous of creatures, a clever sheep. 'e's realized that a sheep's life consists of standin' around for a few months and then bein' eaten. And that's a depressing prospect for an ambitious sheep.
Posted by: Tamzen | September 30, 2007 12:11 AM
I remember a story like this from about 20 years ago. I suppose every so often a sheep rediscovers the art.
Posted by: Antonomasia | September 30, 2007 12:57 PM
What do you mean by "Boston Sheep?"
Since the Boson cattle and sheep created the paths to Boston Commons, there are no more sheep in Boston :)
Posted by: Ken | September 30, 2007 4:23 PM
>Does the BBC really think that 3m is 8ft? What are they, Imperial feet?
Pah, of course, for large values of 8ft and small values of 3m :-)
Posted by: Nik | October 1, 2007 9:35 AM