Stampede

A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Although the term is most often applied to animals, there are cases of humans stampeding from danger too.

Cattle stampedes

The animal behavior of stampeding was observed by cattle ranchers and cowboys in the American Wild West. Large herds of cattle would be managed across wide-open plains, with no fences to contain them. In these unbounded spaces, cattle were able to run freely, and sometimes the whole herd would take off in the same direction unexpectedly. Cowboys developed techniques to deal with this situation and calm the cattle, to stop the stampede and regain control of their herd. The term "stampede" came from the Mexican Spanish term ''estampida'' ('an uproar').

Cattle herds tended to be nervous, and any unusual occurrence, particularly a sudden or unexpected noise, could scare the cattle and kick off a stampede. Things such as a gunshot, a lightning strike, a clap of thunder, someone jumping off a horse, a horse shaking itself, or even a tumbleweed being blown into the herd have been known to cause stampedes.Fay E. Ward
The cowboy at work
Courier Dover Publications, 2003, p. 28

One method used for stopping a stampede is to turn the moving herd into itself so that it runs in wide circles, rather than running off a cliff or into a river. The circle can be made smaller and smaller, eventually forcing the herd to slow down due to lack of space in which to run. Tactics used to make the herd turn into itself include firing a pistol, which creates noise to make the leaders of the stampede turn.

Animals who stampede, especially cattle, are less likely to do so after having eaten and watered, and if they are spread out in smaller groups to digest. To further reduce the risk of stampedes, cowboys sometimes sing or whistle to calm the herds disquieted by nightfall. Those on watch at night avoid doing things which could startle the herd and even distance themselves before dismounting a horse or lighting a match.

Sometimes humans purposefully induce cattle to stampede as a component of warfare or hunting, such as some Native Americans, who were known to provoke American bison herds to stampede off a buffalo jump for hunting purposes, and harvest the animals after they are killed or incapacitated by the fall.

Human stampedes and crushes

A human stampede, in the sense of a mass of people running in panic, can occur in large or dense crowds of people, typically when a large group of people all try to get away from a perceived danger. Trampling is rarely the cause of fatal injuries in stampede conditions, unless egress is impeded.

Human stampedes are rare, and the term "stampede" is often misapplied to phenomena such as crowd collapses and crushes, which are responsible for the majority of fatalities in crowd-related disasters. One prominent difference between the two is that people stampeding have space to run from the danger, whereas people in a crowd crush have nowhere to go. However, there has been little research conducted into what happens during a human stampede, or what exactly causes them to start.

While media and popular culture depictions tend to exaggerate dangers associated with stampedes, and popular news reports of such instances often mention "panic", actual instances of mass panic are rare, and panic itself is rarely the cause of fatalities in such events.

Such incidents have become more common in modern times, as improvements in global transportation allow people to gather in large numbers more easily.

See also

* List of fatal crowd crushes
* Rodeo, also called a "stampede" in Canada

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em

Hazards