Last week, a motorist became stranded on a highway in the central United States. The reason ? A herd of 6,000 sheep!
This scene could come straight out of a modern western movie. Last week, a motorist came across a road in Wyoming, in the United States, blocked by several thousand sheep. The scene, which was filmed and published on the Youtube channel @viralhog, shows the driver caught with his car in the middle of a herd of sheep, in a wintry climate. The herd was so dense that it caused a traffic jam on the road.
Wyoming is one of the least populated states in the United States. This type of incident should therefore be all the more rare in a region where the density is barely two inhabitants per square kilometer and where the largest city, Cheyenne, does not exceed the 65 000 habitants. So to speak, Wyoming is mostly made up of vast plains empty of humans. And yet, these encounters between motorists and hordes of sheep are not so rare.
A motorist finds himself stuck in a horde of 6,000 sheep!
The video filming the scene itself refers to a « Sea of Sheeps »or to a “Sea of sheep« in French. A beautiful metaphor that insists on the impressive size of the herd in the middle of which the driver got stuck. In the background, a cowboy leads the herd of ruminants from the top of his horse. The situation seems to come from another time. Yet it is far from unusual in this region of the central United States.
Sheep farming is particularly developed there, although it has declined sharply since the end of the 1950s. At the end of the Second World War, this state had a total of more than 50 million sheep! Today, their number has been divided by ten: there are no more five million sheep raised in Wyoming. A number large enough to cause trouble on the roads.
Also read:
He drives at 180 km/h on the highway to avoid customs officers
Fastned inaugurates its largest charging station in France
With the dumpster raised, a truck smashes a bridge
A situation far from abnormal in Wyoming
To this day, Wyoming remains one of biggest sheep farmers and one of the most prolific producers of sheep’s wool in the United States. Far from small family farms, breeders in the region tend to gather huge herds, regularly leading to this type of situation.
To make matters worse, it is not uncommon to see local ranchers using public roads to move their herd. This tradition goes back a very long way, and is simply explained by the ease of using paths already marked out to carry out a herd of sheep. A day like any other in Wyoming!
