Traffic Ram

Lured by the plaintive bleating of sheep and the tinkling of bells, hundreds of people lined the sidewalks of Madrid Sunday to watch shepherds herd 2,000 merino sheep through the Spanish capital on their way from summer mountain pastures in northern Leon to the warmer Extremadura in the southwest. The herding has been held every October for four years to encourage authorities to protect Spain’s 78,000 miles of animal migration routes, some of which date back 800 years. Shepherds and ecologists say many of the paths have been destroyed by the spread of cities and towns.