Scientists from Germany and the Czech Republic state: a quarter of a century after the fall of the "Iron Curtain", deer from the border forests still do not cross the border line, where electrified barriers once stood. At the same time, no other species of animals confuse the new borders of Europe.
In Czechoslovakia, where the communists came to power in 1948, electrified fences were installed in three rows on the borders, which were also guarded by border guards armed to the teeth. At least 500 people are known to have died while trying to escape. Deer also fell prey to the killer barrier.
Seven years of research in the Czech National Park Šumava has shown that currently only red deer avoid crossing the line where the border once was. The rest of the animals ignore her.
The average life span of reindeer is 15 years, and none of the reindeer now living in the German and Czech border forests have seen the fence with their own eyes. But the border still separates the two populations. Scientists explain that in the first year of life, fawns learn from their mothers where they can go and where they cannot, and, obviously, information about the danger is passed from generation to generation.
The researchers came to such conclusions after analyzing information from GPS sensors on collars worn by three hundred German and Czech deer.
“I don’t think this is a surprising result. These animals are really conservative,”commented Professor Ludy Bartosz from the Czech University of Life Sciences.
The hypothesis of the "iron curtain" preserved in the heads of deer appeared 12 years ago, but then scientists believed that it was all about old individuals who are afraid of electric hedges. New data show that subsequent generations are also wary of crossing into “enemy territory,” which is completely inexplicable. One gets the impression that some kind of "genetic memory" is working in deer.
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Having learned about the phenomenon, experts on the paranormal joined in to study it. However, they approach the problem not from a biological point of view, but from a psychic one.
In their opinion, reindeer with good supersensible perception abilities see ghosts of people on the border who were once killed while trying to cross the line dividing the countries of the socialist and capitalist camps of Europe.
And these disembodied entities, of course, frighten animals. Therefore, they diligently avoid appearing in unpleasant places for themselves, which leads to the isolation of populations.
Based on materials from newsru.com and the Abnormal News newspaper
