Researchers say they have solved the ‘sheep mystery’

There is the Bermuda Triangle puzzle. Unlocked identity Jack the Ripper. The enigma on how the universe developed beyond quark-gluon soup after the Big Bang. And then there’s the mystery of the sheepdogs.

A puzzle that has shrunk mathematical minds for years, the mystery is this: how does one dog get so many automatic sheep to move so efficiently in the same direction?

The answer may be that sheepdogs wisely follow a simple rule book, according to a magazine published by the prestigious Royal British Society.

Researchers placed high-precision GPS tracking devices in backpacks mounted on an Australian Kelpie sheepdog and a herd of 46 female merino ewes in a five-hectare area – an area roughly equal to that of around on seven football pitches.

They then used the GPS data to build a computer model of what prompted the dog to move, and how it responded. Sheep continuity is the big news. The first rule of the dog is to tie the sheep together by weaving around side by side at the back, and once this is accomplished, he leads the group. onwards.

“He basically sees white, moving things in front of him,” said Andrew King of Swansea University in Wales. “If the dog sees gaps between the sheep, or if the gaps are getting bigger, the dog needs to bring them together. ”

Daniel Stroembom from Uppsala University in Sweden explained, “At every stage of the model, the dog decides whether the herd is consistent enough or not.

“If it is not coherent, it will be coherent, but if it is already coherent, the dog will push the herdsman towards the target. “Single sheepdogs can provide herds of 80 sheep or more in their daily work and in competitive herding trials.

“There are a number of applications for this experience, such as population control, environmental clean-up, livestock herding and gathering or guidance groups of robotic exploration,” King said.