New explanations for the phenomenon of sheep turning.. So what does science say?

After circulating videos showing a herd of sheep circling in a circular ring in China and another in Jordan, a controversy arose on social media about the nature of the clips and whether they are related to a particular phenomenon.

Scientists from the British University of Hartpury revealed their interpretation of a video clip that was widely circulated in the Mongolia region of northern China, showing scenes of the continuous rotation of a flock of sheep.

The university professors explained that the sheep staying in the barn for long periods can lead to this behavior.

The authors of the study added: "The reason for the sheep's rotation may be a long stay in the stable, which may result in stereotypical behavior with continuous rotation as a result of the feeling of discomfort from being in a narrow spatial space."

University professors also pointed out that other sheep joined the circular march because sheep are pack animals and do what other sheep do.

The Merck Veterinary Manual says that a herd mentality dominates the social behavior of sheep, and controls the movements of other animals.

Similar incident in Jordan

In the same context, tweeters circulated on social media a video clip showing a herd of sheep circling around, and the herd returning to a barn in Karak Governorate, south of the Jordanian capital, Amman.

An official of the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture commented on the video, saying that this concerns the behavior of" mothers and newborns " of herd members, stressing that a series of examinations and measures have been taken to verify the presence of a pathological infection or pathological behavior.

The media spokesman of the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture, Lawrence Majali, explained in a statement to CNN that the ministry monitored the scene of the incident immediately after the video was broadcast, and that one of the citizens had taken the video, which sparked a debate among the people of the area, although the video does not exceed minutes.

Al-Majali pointed out that the rotation movement lasted only minutes, and that it was related to the behavior of mothers who were looking for their newborns after returning from pastures outside the barn, according to the analysis of the ministry's teams, and that each one returned to her place after finding her newborns, while the examination through specialized committees confirmed the safety of the herd and the absence of any disease.

The video went into circulation in Jordan two weeks after the same was seen in China, which caused even more controversy and many interpretations of the event.

Explanations and attempts to solve the mystery

There were several explanations for this unusual spectacle that puzzled specialists, and the Science Alert scientific news site noted that the behavior of sheep may be due to its entry into the death spiral, as sometimes happens to ants.

While the US New York Post reported that the sheep's turnover may be due to a bacterial disease called listeriosis, also known as turnover disease.

Listeriosis affects one side of the animal's brain, causing a tendency towards the affected side that sometimes reaches paralysis, and in the case of an outbreak, usually only a small percentage of sheep are affected and tend to follow a circling behavior.

This infection can be transmitted through contaminated food, soil, or animal feces, and causes a complex set of symptoms such as depression, loss of appetite, fever, partial paralysis, and circular behavior.

Listeriosis usually causes the death of infected animals within 48 hours, so it cannot be explained how sheep in China continue to walk in circles for a relatively long time.

Professor of cattle and sheep production Medicine at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Andrew Fish, ruled out that the cause of the behavior of these sheep is a circulatory disease, and explained that this infection usually affects only 1% to 10% of the herd.

Matt Bell, a professor at the Department of Agriculture at the British University of Hartbury, does not believe that the behavior of sheep is a difficult mystery, and told the American magazine Newsweek that the behavior of sheep is due to being locked in the barn for long periods.

He also said that the confinement of animals " may make her feel frustrated as a result of the narrowness of the place where she lives, so that she begins to move in a circular and frequent manner, and other sheep join her, being a herd of animals, they have a friendship bond and follow each other ".

It is a common symptom in wild animals that are kept in limited places, and it can lead to the repetition of certain behavior without a specific goal, as soon as the animal behaves in this way, the behavior is transmitted to the rest like a strange infection.

Emma Doyle, a livestock expert at the University of New England in Australia, told ABC News that she was surprised by what she saw, and said: "I've never seen sheep behave this way," adding: "it looks a little deceptive, as if something was placed in the middle of the circle preventing it from entering.