ISTANBUL, Turkey — 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, Aksam reported.

[via washingtonpost.com]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2005 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Animals & Insects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.