Some sheep are born leaders

Migrating wild sheep share knowledge and some even develop leadership skills, according to a study.

Sheep, far from rambling mindlessly, develop climbing and migrating skills by transmitting cultural knowledge, such as which areas are richest in food and which are safest from predators.

Monitoring sheep with Gpsequipped collars, Marco Festabianchet, a biologist from the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, found sheep put in new areas for conservation reasons did not explore much and only started to when certain sheep blazed the trails.

Identifying and understanding sheep leaders could help to conserve flocks, as migrating numbers continue to fall due to loss of habitat, with paths blocked by buildings, motorways, fences and walls. The paper was published in the journal Science. Samantha Herbert