bizarre sheep story

Erm, a rather unusual story from Turkey on the Guardian website.

"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".

The famous idea about lemmings (that they jump off cliffs to their doom whenever they get the chance) is of course rubbish. It was started by Walt Disney, who used to make short documentaries to accompany their cartoons. Frustrated at the lemmings refusal to commit mass suicide (they do do it, very occasionally, apparently), they rounded them up and chucked them over the edge and filmed it. A popular myth was born. Charming.