Posted on 02/16/2019 3:55:17 AM PST by LibWhacker
Vikings hunting reindeer in Norway were once confounded by "reindeer cyclones"; a threatened herd would literally run circles around the fierce hunters, making it nearly impossible to target a single animal.
Filmmakers recently captured incredible aerial footage of one of these reindeer cyclones, which aired Feb. 13 on PBS in the documentary "Wild Way of the Vikings," a program about Vikings and the wilderness they inhabited around A.D. 1000. [Photos: Ancient Arrows from Reindeer Hunters Found in Norway]
One of the documentary's most striking scenes shows a re-enactment of a Viking hunt interspersed with real footage of reindeer herds. Reindeer were important to the Vikings for their meat, hides, antlers and bones, according to the film.
In the cyclone scene, a lone hunter (an actor playing a Viking) approaches the herd; he notches and releases an arrow. The footage that follows shows an actual herd of reindeer running in circles. As the swirling mass of bodies thunders along a circular path, an overhead camera reveals that the herd's momentum follows a spiral shape, drawing tightly toward the cyclone's "eye" at the center.
Faced with this spinning reindeer stampede, any predator — wolf, bear or human — would have a very tough time targeting and overpowering a single reindeer, making this a formidable defense strategy...
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Instead of running around in a circle, you would think they would just run away........
Did you watch it? they were harder to kill this way AND they could kill the hunter.
A butt is harder to hit than a broadside........
NO WAY you watched the video in between my post and the time it took you to respond.
Watch it first.
Another possibility is that they’re just following the reindeer in front of them not realizing they’re just running in a circle. Kinda like follow the leader with no real leader......LOL!
So,reindeer are democrats?
No, reindeer have functioning brains.
Almost as deadly as a Sharknado.
It has always seemed to me that the best strategy for a herd animal (ie. Zebras) being hunted by a small group of predators (ie. Lions) would be to attack. A pride of a dozen lion against a herd of a thousand Zebras wouldn’t stand a chance. One or more Zebra might die but after a few zebra herd encounters there wouldn’t be any lions left.
Wow. I bet the buffalo would have liked to have known this trick
Reindeer emerged as a distinct species about a million years ago (Yep, I had to look it up... I’m not a reindeer expert!). The cyclone defense probably worked great against their main enemies (bears, wolves, saber-tooth tigers(?)) for much of that time. When man came along, the reindeer just kept doing what worked well against all the other predators.
I wonder if they spin the other way in the opposite hemisphere.
I was thinking the same thing... And wildebeest in Africa.
It’s amazing that other heavily hunted herd animals didn’t discover the tactic as well.
Yep, trying to run away from a wolf pack always ended up with the slowest of the herd getting caught and killed. So they continued the same technique not realizing that they could easily run away from the vikings unless they were on their snowmobiles.....
Reindeer Games — they have a purpose.
Or lions would learn to leave the herds alone. It's amazing to me what evolution figures out (reindeer cyclones) and doesn't figure out (counterattacking zebra herds). The second one seems to me to be easier to conceptualize and understand for relatively low IQ herd animals, yet that behavior was never discovered by them. Which must mean understanding has nothing to do with it. It's just random responses until one response works and sticks.
Lol
Reindeernado!
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