Wales gave us Michael Sheen and Rob Brydon, so clearly it's relevant. (I would also include Tom Jones, but I'm a bit too young to be in his demographic, and frankly, I hate his music 😅) *EDIT* Oh, oh! And most of the cast of Torchwood!
When Jade exclaimed "sheep are really smart!" my first thought, having a family member who keeps sheep, was "no, they're REALLY not." But they ARE good at following the leader, which is probably why this "viral" behavior was a problem.
Same. But I had to laugh when the wikipedia article was like: "They work on all different kinds of livestock and also on wildlife, depending on the specifications. But goats? No way."
@@arnoldhau1 been in the real world, never heard or seen this. In my country the flocks of sheep (or cattle for that matter) are herded on large open pastures and closed in their pens during the night. that's what the herding dogs are for. Or somebody may have a large piece of land, surrounded by a fence (wooden or electric) and the road is closed by a gate.
“Jump on the barbed wire in full combat dress and let the platoon walk over your back” is one of the official answers to “there is barbed wire in the way of the military advance”.
Based on my experience with sheep, I believe the second one is more liekly to be an accodent. One sheep gets stuck and the rest just walk over it not noticing. I dont know whether pigs or sheep were a bigger PITA to move. Pigs will constantly try to evade and run past you, but they will pretty much always move and it is up to your ability to contain and direct them. Meanwhile, sheep are far easier to keep igoimg the right direction, but when a big group of sheep decides not to move in a confined space, they might as well be hunks of concrete.
I knew this one immediately because I remember reading about it in a book of animals facts in the late 90s! That book happened to be 'Beastly Behaviour: True Animal Tales' by... Rolf Harris
My guess before watching the video. It was something memetic. The sheep were teaching each other how to do something that made infastructire obsolete. Like jumping fences
Ah! Have you perhaps fallen for some Urban (or rural) legend? I just tried to find a video of this, only to discover a story about this happening in Yorkshire, not Wales. (BBC 2004). Another article about it (from Wales) quotes a comment from a farmer saying it is common in Wales. And sheep are good jumpers too - some can simply clear the Cattle Grid. Others walk around the edge, and some simply tiptoe. There are also stories of rolling sheep from Ireland. However, I can't find anything about quarantining sheep because of this. And that wouldn't make a lot of sense anyway, since unless you sell a herd, there is only one reason they will move from the farm - and it is a one-way trip....
I originally read about it in "The art of looking sideways" by Alan Fletcher, which quotes its source as The Sunday Times, April 1985. And if you don't believe animals can't learn from each other, millions of blue tits who opened milk bottle tops would disagree. -- David
@@lateralcast Well, the Sunday Times have an online archive, and the 1985 issues are available. I feel that someone should look for the original source. It may not be you, David, but someone should do it.
@@lateralcast - All animals learn from each other. That is how evolution works! But they do have to meet up to learn. I am not sure sheep rolling is an online course yet.... 🤣
@@lateralcast Found the source. It's called "A Flock of Brain waves" and was written by Henry Porter. It was published in the Sunday Times on Sunday March 31st, 1985, Issue: 8382. I found it through my university website so I can't post a link, but it was in Gale Archives.
I just love Lateral! Bring together my nerd girl Jade with my queer boy Corry (sorry don't know Luke, I'll look him up now!) and it just makes me so happy. Everyone is so fun and smart, great to listen to!
If anyone else wants to read the original story it was reported in the Sunday Times which has an archive on Gale Primary Sources. It's called "A Flock of Brain waves" and was written by Henry Porter and published on Sunday March 31st, 1985, Issue: 8382. Unfortunately, because I found it through my university website, I can't post a link.
I was laughing for several minutes after hearing the answer! Free the sheep, if they want to make it harder for human players to farm their resources I’m all for it, the meta needs a shakeup, and I do enjoy sheep resources.
I'm pretty sure I've seen both cows and sheep just carefully walk across them... If they're sufficiently rusty worn they can fairly easily just balance their feet on the bars without slipping and walk... I always thought it was simply there to slow them down, not stop them completely. Also I thought they mainly worked by scaring them off because they generally dislike walking over logs and other things that could hurt their legs, but if they're not afraid of the bars they aren't really much of a physical barrier. Most of them even has metal plates where the tires of cars would go as extra reinforcement which any animal can just walk across if they're not afraid.
I just googled it and it apparently have kept happening with several more flocks who independently figured out the rolling method. I also found a video of a sheep who figured out it could just walk slowly across because the trench below the bars was apparently not deeper than the length of its legs.
This would have been a single airing interesting news segment on the evening tv news in 1985 (ish), why did my brain decide to store enough of it that 35 years later it could immediately answer this question. Did 10 year old me find the idea of sheep doing this thing that worthy of note? 😖
Video evidence, my friends: Sheep jumping and side-stepping a cattle grid: th-cam.com/video/v-RxCZU6Gp0/w-d-xo.html. Sheep crossing a cattle guard with care: th-cam.com/video/5rIbZWblPaA/w-d-xo.html. And a joke: th-cam.com/video/Z32-DDFx0dU/w-d-xo.html
From the mid 50's to the mid 80's there was an infestation of funnel web spiders in Bristol. Luckily, the spider breed was not fatal - in fact, it just caused mild inflamation and itchiness if it bit you - but the UK government wasn't taking any chances and had them eradicated by 1990.
I noticed that, and I wonder whether he just meant equipment to kill them (slaughterhouse tools) separately from equipment to take their wool (shearing tools), or if it was really meant as a logical sequence.
he quite clearly says "make all their meat unusable" and "make their wool unusable" as two separate problems which would make "the equipment... used to kill them *and* [the equipment used to] take their wool" obsolete
@@roadrunnercrazy "Make the meat... and wool unusable making the equipment used to kill them and take their wool" It tracks, Wool sheep require equipment required to take their wool, Meat sheep need to be killed to take their meat
Learn to follow each other to somehow roll over the gate? maybe. 🤔 But NO WAY would sheep work together to help each other that way, they follow - like sheep! - by instinct and protection, but they're not like ants that sacrifice themselves for the greater good. "lambs to the slaughter" not "I'll lay down and you lot get away!"😆
Not sure if I misheard, but sheep do not need to be killed to get their wool. The sheering process is perfectly safe and comfortable for the sheep. I've seen the lie that sheep are killed for wool spread on social media here and there, so just to be safe...
Maybe he didn't mean equipment "to kill them and take their wool", but "equipment to kill them, and equipment to take their wool". Both is done, just not at the same time or with the same tools.
@@lateralcast After the last few years of Covid, I can only associate quarantine with contagious disease control 😅. I checked out Cambridge Dictionary online, and all their definitions are related to diseases (or the spread of some other harmful things)
One sheep does it probably by accident. the other saw this and one or more tried it and they made it work so more sheep tried it. Soon all in the flock knew this tricks.
Well I mean, it seems like there's a very small number of sheep that eventually figure it out, or just get lucky and the other nearby sheep just copy that so I don't know that this proves they aren't stupid, maybe just not as stupid as people think
I still want the termite video even though the house is free of them now
As someone who's grown up on a sheep farm, I can say sheep are very good at getting to places you don't want them too
"Is Wales terribly relevant?"
"No, not at all. "
*Angry Welsh noises.
Funniest part of the piece.
Wales gave us Michael Sheen and Rob Brydon, so clearly it's relevant. (I would also include Tom Jones, but I'm a bit too young to be in his demographic, and frankly, I hate his music 😅)
*EDIT* Oh, oh! And most of the cast of Torchwood!
Now if I ever go to Europe I'm just going to spend the whole time teaching as many sheep as I can to roll across those.
Run around in a big fluffy jacket and roll across every grid you find when sheep are near?
Warning: Don't let your sheep watch this video!!
WHERE IS THE VIDEO?
@@Seth9809 You commented on the video.
Seen a sheep in NSW just do a straightforward running jump over a cattle grid.
When Jade exclaimed "sheep are really smart!" my first thought, having a family member who keeps sheep, was "no, they're REALLY not." But they ARE good at following the leader, which is probably why this "viral" behavior was a problem.
As an American (with kiwi parents) hearing two Brits and an Aussie speculate on the rules of baseball in the full podcast was hilarious 😂
I was considering a kiwi sheep joke response but that would be beneath all of us.
This happened in the faroe Islands as well. One crawled on its knees over, and the rest of the flock learned from her
Clever!
I've seen a few sheep roll all over a cattle grid - I think near merthyr , didn't know I was meant to set off the warning klaxon
I had never heard of cattle grids until now. The Wikipedia article helped
Same. But I had to laugh when the wikipedia article was like: "They work on all different kinds of livestock and also on wildlife, depending on the specifications. But goats? No way."
Never been out in the real world? They are everywhere here in the Alps and Jura and hills and and and...
@@arnoldhau1 been in the real world, never heard or seen this. In my country the flocks of sheep (or cattle for that matter) are herded on large open pastures and closed in their pens during the night. that's what the herding dogs are for. Or somebody may have a large piece of land, surrounded by a fence (wooden or electric) and the road is closed by a gate.
@@panda4247 And there is no drain like object beneath the gate?
3:16 Do electric sheep dream of androids?
surely these ones were acoustic
@@markblacket8900 Kitty?
“Jump on the barbed wire in full combat dress and let the platoon walk over your back” is one of the official answers to “there is barbed wire in the way of the military advance”.
Based on my experience with sheep, I believe the second one is more liekly to be an accodent. One sheep gets stuck and the rest just walk over it not noticing.
I dont know whether pigs or sheep were a bigger PITA to move. Pigs will constantly try to evade and run past you, but they will pretty much always move and it is up to your ability to contain and direct them. Meanwhile, sheep are far easier to keep igoimg the right direction, but when a big group of sheep decides not to move in a confined space, they might as well be hunks of concrete.
I knew this one immediately because I remember reading about it in a book of animals facts in the late 90s! That book happened to be 'Beastly Behaviour: True Animal Tales' by... Rolf Harris
It must’ve been Harold who taught them- he is that most dangerous of animals, the clever sheep!
Exactly what I was thinking of! They learned to fly!
@@Not-THAT-ChrisPratt They did not so much as fly but plummet....
Yes!!
That's the best example of infohazard I have ever heard.
My guess before watching the video. It was something memetic. The sheep were teaching each other how to do something that made infastructire obsolete. Like jumping fences
Now we know where the idea for the pokemon came from. There is a sheep pokemon that gets around by rolling.
Ah! Have you perhaps fallen for some Urban (or rural) legend? I just tried to find a video of this, only to discover a story about this happening in Yorkshire, not Wales. (BBC 2004). Another article about it (from Wales) quotes a comment from a farmer saying it is common in Wales. And sheep are good jumpers too - some can simply clear the Cattle Grid. Others walk around the edge, and some simply tiptoe. There are also stories of rolling sheep from Ireland. However, I can't find anything about quarantining sheep because of this. And that wouldn't make a lot of sense anyway, since unless you sell a herd, there is only one reason they will move from the farm - and it is a one-way trip....
I originally read about it in "The art of looking sideways" by Alan Fletcher, which quotes its source as The Sunday Times, April 1985. And if you don't believe animals can't learn from each other, millions of blue tits who opened milk bottle tops would disagree. -- David
@@lateralcast Well, the Sunday Times have an online archive, and the 1985 issues are available. I feel that someone should look for the original source. It may not be you, David, but someone should do it.
@@lateralcast - All animals learn from each other. That is how evolution works! But they do have to meet up to learn. I am not sure sheep rolling is an online course yet....
🤣
@@lateralcast Found the source. It's called "A Flock of Brain waves" and was written by Henry Porter. It was published in the Sunday Times on Sunday March 31st, 1985, Issue: 8382. I found it through my university website so I can't post a link, but it was in Gale Archives.
I just love Lateral! Bring together my nerd girl Jade with my queer boy Corry (sorry don't know Luke, I'll look him up now!) and it just makes me so happy. Everyone is so fun and smart, great to listen to!
@TomScott Electric Mountain is in Dinorwig , Llanberis. Not Ffestiniog, its about 30miles away!
"Blaenau Ffestiniog , Wales" feels as superfluous as putting "London, England" over a picture of Tower Bridge ;o)
Scott!! It's not Blan-ow, it's Blay-nigh!!
I feel really, really bad for the that one sheep-turned-bridge. I hope this was before shearing season so that the coat was thick and could shield it.
If anyone else wants to read the original story it was reported in the Sunday Times which has an archive on Gale Primary Sources. It's called "A Flock of Brain waves" and was written by Henry Porter and published on Sunday March 31st, 1985, Issue: 8382. Unfortunately, because I found it through my university website, I can't post a link.
I was laughing for several minutes after hearing the answer! Free the sheep, if they want to make it harder for human players to farm their resources I’m all for it, the meta needs a shakeup, and I do enjoy sheep resources.
I love this series :'D
Lol, that's some Shaun-the-Sheep-level of development :o
Hold on. Is that some sort of inspiration for Wooloo (yes, the Pokémon)? Because it's a sheep that rollls on its back rather than walk.
I'm pretty sure I've seen both cows and sheep just carefully walk across them... If they're sufficiently rusty worn they can fairly easily just balance their feet on the bars without slipping and walk... I always thought it was simply there to slow them down, not stop them completely.
Also I thought they mainly worked by scaring them off because they generally dislike walking over logs and other things that could hurt their legs, but if they're not afraid of the bars they aren't really much of a physical barrier. Most of them even has metal plates where the tires of cars would go as extra reinforcement which any animal can just walk across if they're not afraid.
I just googled it and it apparently have kept happening with several more flocks who independently figured out the rolling method. I also found a video of a sheep who figured out it could just walk slowly across because the trench below the bars was apparently not deeper than the length of its legs.
This is a whole premise for a science fiction story!
maybe in an Aardman animation!
There's a Gary Larson "The Far Side" comic in this story somewhere.... :)
possible origin of a certain pokemon sheep maybe, hmm
How and when does the quarantine end? When they've forgotten to roll, or when they are plump enough for eating?
This is how aliens discuss stopping us from discovering faster than light travel
something about full video episodes
Be happy that they do at least have clips. They could also have done the audio versions only. But people be always complaining.
I have never heard of cattle grids... lol
This would have been a single airing interesting news segment on the evening tv news in 1985 (ish), why did my brain decide to store enough of it that 35 years later it could immediately answer this question. Did 10 year old me find the idea of sheep doing this thing that worthy of note? 😖
Video evidence, my friends: Sheep jumping and side-stepping a cattle grid: th-cam.com/video/v-RxCZU6Gp0/w-d-xo.html. Sheep crossing a cattle guard with care: th-cam.com/video/5rIbZWblPaA/w-d-xo.html. And a joke: th-cam.com/video/Z32-DDFx0dU/w-d-xo.html
There are tons of youtube videos with sheep crossing cattle grids; apparently it's not that difficult.
What does Tom's mic cover say?
"Is Wales terribly relevant?" "No, not at all."
Has anyone ever deliberately tried to teach sheep how to do this? Maybe out of spite, or simply as a weird act of terrorism?
From the mid 50's to the mid 80's there was an infestation of funnel web spiders in Bristol. Luckily, the spider breed was not fatal - in fact, it just caused mild inflamation and itchiness if it bit you - but the UK government wasn't taking any chances and had them eradicated by 1990.
Pink Floyd "Sheep" comes to mind.
Sheep Prometheus is real mad about this one
Any Minecrafter knows that all it takes to properly pen sheep are some fences and carpets.
The forbidden knowledge lol
Ok, looking up cattle grid at the start of the vid instead of the end to learn what it is would have been more useful, but hey XD
The US idiom for that device (at least the part of the US where I'm from, upper midwest) is "cattle guard".
@@fsodn Haha yeah I don't think that would have really helped, ain't heard of that either. (also pretty sure those aren't idioms)
sheep world domination
1:50
"I also enjoy saying the words...... "
was I the only one expecting:
"Wales is not relevant at all"
somehow the answer reminded me of cartoon 'shaun the sheep'
now i want a pet sheep
Ha. 1st time I knew what it was going to be before they all did. Remembering that story too!
Sheepnanigans !
Four legs good,two legs bad!
Next time someone calls me a sheep, I'll take it as a compliment.
Imagine Vegan guerillas teaching sheep this technique and then distributing them around the country.
Luke needs to know that sheep don't need to be killed to have their wool harvested.
It is a common misconception among vegans.
@@lauschangriff "the equipment that is used to kill them and take their wool" - Luke
I noticed that, and I wonder whether he just meant equipment to kill them (slaughterhouse tools) separately from equipment to take their wool (shearing tools), or if it was really meant as a logical sequence.
he quite clearly says "make all their meat unusable" and "make their wool unusable" as two separate problems which would make "the equipment... used to kill them *and* [the equipment used to] take their wool" obsolete
@@roadrunnercrazy "Make the meat... and wool unusable making the equipment used to kill them and take their wool"
It tracks, Wool sheep require equipment required to take their wool, Meat sheep need to be killed to take their meat
That'll explain the reason I can't count them to get to sleep, they've all run away. 😆
Let my sheeple go
I feel like it's worth mentioning that you do not, in fact, need to kill the sheep to get their wool...
Learn to follow each other to somehow roll over the gate? maybe. 🤔 But NO WAY would sheep work together to help each other that way, they follow - like sheep! - by instinct and protection, but they're not like ants that sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
"lambs to the slaughter" not "I'll lay down and you lot get away!"😆
"Oh yeah, that's Harold."
Note to the team, Bleaenau is pronounced Blaen-ai, not au.
Grand theft auto Sheep.
Must be Shaun The Sheep.
So sheep *_can_* do more than just eat and pee in the water ;)
Feel like this is a "Shaun the Sheep" episode...
Memetic sheep knowledge
Yet to watch this but I assume it’s brilliant as ever :)
But they couldn't teach other farm animals, so the cattle grid wouldn't be obsolete for all animals.
Cows have been observed learning from aheep
most convincing argument to become vegan. still won't, but the best attempt so far
If an AI did this, we would start asking philosophical questions about if the AI could become a person or not.
I'm surprised sheep can problem solve _and_ learn from each other to this degree. Impressive.
They wanted to reach the Cosmos Laundromat!
Not sure if I misheard, but sheep do not need to be killed to get their wool. The sheering process is perfectly safe and comfortable for the sheep. I've seen the lie that sheep are killed for wool spread on social media here and there, so just to be safe...
Maybe he didn't mean equipment "to kill them and take their wool", but "equipment to kill them, and equipment to take their wool". Both is done, just not at the same time or with the same tools.
I'd say the the sheep were put in isolation rather than quarantined. Quarantine is only when there's some disease you don't want to spread, right?
Meaning #4: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quarantine
@@lateralcast After the last few years of Covid, I can only associate quarantine with contagious disease control 😅. I checked out Cambridge Dictionary online, and all their definitions are related to diseases (or the spread of some other harmful things)
@@tonypang83 I mean sharing knowledge does count as a viral phenomenon with memetics.
I thought Tom *was* vegan?
You can take the wool without killing the sheep you know 😛
*spoilers for solution*
But how do the sheep communicatie? Or let they just show it to the others, and they watch and replicate it.
One sheep does it probably by accident. the other saw this and one or more tried it and they made it work so more sheep tried it.
Soon all in the flock knew this tricks.
You can learn an awful lot by just trying stuff other people do.
This video is banned from sheeptube😂
Clips = no
Full episodes = yes
Listen to your audience tom
Lateral with Tom Scott fans try not to complain that they don't release full episodes challenge: Impossible.
reported for spam
@@warrust good idea, but I don't think it will work, cause they say the same thing but everytime in different words.
@@WrenFJ OP is not politely requesting
@@warrust How is this spam‽
Irl cognitohazard :)
and people think that sheep are stupid
Well I mean, it seems like there's a very small number of sheep that eventually figure it out, or just get lucky
and the other nearby sheep just copy that so I don't know that this proves they aren't stupid,
maybe just not as stupid as people think
Oh my gosh you mean they *can* learn?
…this is not good
This is a crime against the sheep community, humans have stopped spreading sheep knowledge...
Mother nature will not forgive us for what they did to those innocent deserving sheep.
Sheep aren't killed when they're sheared 😒😒
Now i’m just imagining vegan terrorists in a secret base training sheep to roll over these things
They wouldn't be terrorists, they would be abolitionists