Bison herds use a democratic 'voting' process to decide where to go
Americans aren't the only ones who will be casting their votes in 2016; in the animal kingdom, it turns out European bison also use majority rule to make decisions.
To be fair, bison don't have primaries or an Electoral College and their voting isn't regularly scheduled in November each year. But when it comes to making decisions about travel, ecologist Amandine Ramos of the French National Center for Scientific Research discovered that bison will point their heads in the direction they want to go in order to "cast their vote."
Ramos noted that the electoral process might not be so American after all, as bison prove that "communication and consensus are two processes that also exist in the animal kingdom."
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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