450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey

[BJ_M]

The Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; 9:30 AM

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- 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.

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 and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

"There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted," Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

"Every family had an average of 20 sheep," Aksam quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying. "But now only a few families have sheep left. It's going to be hard for us."

[HatchetMan]

WTF?

[Shadowmistress]

Note to self: STFU

[yoda313]

Hi,

????



SO uh I guess that old phrase "if everyone jumped off a cliff would you?" applies here huh??

Kevin

[smearbrick1]

Note to self: STFU :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wonder what they were running from?

[offline]

The herd instinct is powerful young skywalker.(tm)

[yoda313]

Hi,



Feel the sheep around you

Kevin

[Hardcoreruss]

The Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; 9:30 AM

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- 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.

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 and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

"There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted," Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

"Every family had an average of 20 sheep," Aksam quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying. "But now only a few families have sheep left. It's going to be hard for us."

Where do you get this stuff from?

[BJ_M]

The Associated Press

[BJ_M]

I first saw it in the Toronto Star though (today)

[hudsonf]

That's just one reason you never leave a herd of sheep alone. A good sheep dog does more than keep the wolves away.

[AlecWest]

Hmmm ... sounds like a cross-breeding experiment that went bad. Guess they can release the lemmings back into the wild, now, hehe.

[JohnnyCNote]

Sheep were never noted for their intelligence....

[BJ_M]

Hmmm ... sounds like a cross-breeding experiment that went bad. Guess they can release the lemmings back into the wild, now, hehe.

Lemming suicide is fiction.

lemmings never commited mass sucide as was popular to teach back in the 50's and 60's and even 70's , untill it was discovered that Disney made it all up .. A LOT of people still believe it true today...

During the filming of the 1958 Disney nature documentary White Wilderness, the film crew induced lemmings into jumping off a cliff and into the sea in order to document their supposedly suicidal behavior.

Disney's White Wilderness was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is not a native habitat for lemmings and has no outlet to the sea. Lemmings were imported for use in the film, purchased from Inuit children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. White Wilderness does not depict an actual lemming migration — at no time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.

Nine different photographers spent three years shooting and assembling footage for the various segments that comprise White Wilderness. It is not known whether Disney approved or knew about the activities of James R. Simon, the principal photographer for the lemmings sequence.

Nature documentaries are notoriously difficult to film, as wild animals are not terribly cooperative. Many nature shows and films of this era — including Disney's "True-Life Adventure" movies and TV's Wild Kingdom — staged events to capture exciting footage for their audiences. The sight of a few lemmings mistaking a lake or ocean for a stream and drowning after swimming out too far, or being pushed over a cliff during the frenzied rush of migration, has become the basis of a widespread belief that lemmings commit suicide en masse when their numbers grow too large.

[Ironballs]

Note to self: STFU

I wonder what they were running from?

The Welsh

[offline]

Ironballs, is that Terry Thomas?

[MackemX]

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

a sheep is worth $2700?

I'm gonna buy some lambs and start breeding sheep. Hmmm, now who was it round here that knew quite a bit about sheep?

[mcbit]

Harold..... He's that most dangerous of animals a clever sheep!!

http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode02.htm

[Ironballs]

Offline, it sure is the man himself, Terry Thomas, Genius

[BJ_M]

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

a sheep is worth $2700?

I'm gonna buy some lambs and start breeding sheep. Hmmm, now who was it round here that knew quite a bit about sheep?

$100,000 loss / 450 dead sheep = makes each sheep worth $222.22


the $2700 is GDP

GDP = gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the amount of the economic production of a particular territory in financial capital terms during a specific time period. It is one of the measures of national income and output. It is often seen as an indicator of the standard of living in a country.

But they got the wrong figure anyway, in Turkey the GDP is about $4700

In the USA it is $41,917

BTW - many do not believe it is a realistic measurement ..


Rank Country 2005 GDP (nominal) per capita
US dollars
— World Average 6,851
1 Luxembourg 77,595
2 Norway 61,852
3 Switzerland 52,879
4 Iceland 52,063
5 Republic of Ireland 50,303
6 Denmark 49,182
7 Sweden 42,392
8 United States 41,917
9 Qatar 39,607
10 Austria 39,292
11 Finland 39,098
12 Netherlands 38,320
13 United Kingdom 38,098
14 Belgium 37,730
15 Japan 37,566
16 France 35,727
17 Germany 35,075
18 Canada 34,028
19 Australia 33,629
20 Italy 31,874



In many countries in africa it is under $1000, in Sierra Leone (#1 rated worse country in the world to live) it is $500

[offline]

BTW - many do not believe it is a realistic measurement ..

Many? <cough>

[AlecWest]

Lemming suicide is fiction.

I'll be darned. Learn something new every day. Hmmmm ... maybe the sheep and a few suicide bombers ... nah, never mind.

[zzyzzx]

I wonder what they were running from?

[SquirrelDip]

ConvoPit must be flying their flags at half mast...

[HatchetMan]

Just told my dad about this (who grew up on a farm in Idaho), was not surprised at all. Said they were more than likely following a goat. On the farm, when they need to transport sheep from one town to the next (5-10 miles away), they would tie a goat to the back of a truck and drive real slow (of course). The whole herd of sheep would follow them anywhere. So, the story is not as absurb as I originally thought. Unless of course there were UFO's hovering over that Turkish town

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Note to self: STFU

I wonder what they were running from?

May the WOLF be with you...

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

a sheep is worth $2700?

I'm gonna buy some lambs and start breeding sheep. Hmmm, now who was it round here that knew quite a bit about sheep?

Check the CM's guides for: HOW TO BREED SHEEP 1.0

[virginva]

they were running from capmaster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!