[LibWhacker]

Thank YOU! :-)

Have you ever seen a reindeer cyclone? I looked elsewhere on the web and one website said even a small number of reindeer will sometimes exhibit that behavior in a confined space like a corral.

[MarchonDC09122009]

You’re welcome.
No never heard of herd behavior like that.
Fluid animal group movement reminds me of how fish schools, and bird flock swarm behavior.
I share your fascination of how the collective behavior became programmed within each creature.
There is so much we do not know about everything.
I wish I could clone my younger self and send copies of “me” thru different natural studies career.

[rlmorel]

There was an excellent movie "Temple Grandin" which was about an autistic woman who revolutionized the cattle slaughter industry (oddly enough) because she was able to perceive that steers appear to like to go in circles, especially when threatened.

Up to that point, traditional slaughterhouses had straight chutes they forced the steers down with a bath they had to swim through (to remove parasites and other things) with slatted fencing on the sides, manned by men who had to prod the cattle with prods, and occasionally having to lasso and fish out cattle that were panicked and drowned in the bath...hugely labor intensive and dangerous, never mind losing the cattle that couldn't be resuscitated.

She designed one that went in gentle curves (and convinced someone to build it) didn't have slats where the alternating light and dark seemed (to her) to agitate them, and made the bath a thing they could calmly walk into and through. It really worked saving time and money, which added up.

A great movie...unknown to many. Without fail, every single person I have shown the movie to raved about it. One of my favorites!