Smart Sheep

 We had some sheep in Indiana that we would put out to graze in a pasture a little ways from the barn. The pasture was divided into four smaller pastures, each a little farther from the barn. The fence was a temporary electric fence which zapped once every second. A smart animal would learn after one or two zaps not to touch it.

One summer we removed the fence wire from the nearer pastures and put the sheep to graze in the farthest pasture. When we opened the gate they would all run at top speed through the other pastures to the barn. But I saw one smart sheep running along with the rest until she suddenly came skidding to a stop, right where an electric wire used to be! That's pretty impressive. Her understanding and memory of electric wires was stronger than her flocking instinct.

Sometimes I looked out the kitchen window and saw the sheep all standing with their ears erect all looking in the same direction. What could they be looking at? It was usually a cat or the neighbor's Beagle, who was short enough to slip under the fence without being zapped. He always had his nose to the ground, and I don't think he was the least bit interested in the sheep.

Once I watched the sheep heading for the far pasture where there was lots of green grass. But for some reason the lead sheep decided to go around the open gate and into the woods. One of the last sheep saw the lush grass and looked at it longingly, but she wasn't independent enough to leave the flock, and she wasn't the leader, so she reluctantly followed the rest of the flock into the woods.

You don't really want sheep to be independent. That creates too much trouble for the shepherd. And staying with the flock is a protection from predators. Sheep are as smart as cows, but not quite as smart as pigs.

And then you could debate whether cows are smarter than horses. Horses are more trainable, I suppose.

Now what about comparing frogs and toads?