Sheepdogs are able to control flocks of sheep in two simple steps.

Step 1, the dog weaves from side to side to make unruly sheep come together in a flock. Step 2, once the sheep are compressed into a flock, the dog pushes them forward.

Scientists made this discovery by using GPS devices placed inside customized backpacks mounted on sheep and the sheepdogs that guided the herd. The tracker was designed by Dr Andrew King, a biologist at Swansea University in Wales in the UK.

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"At the beginning we had lots of different ideas," said Dr. King.

"We started out looking from a bird's eye view, but then we realized we needed to see what the dog sees. It sees white, fluffy things. If there are gaps between them or the gaps get bigger, the dogs needs to bring them together."

Dr. King stated that sheepdogs are working using the "selfish herd theory" to its advantage.

This theory revolves around the knowledge that sheep respond to threats by putting something between the threat and themselves, in this case other sheep. By moving towards the center of a group, sheep minimize the chances of a threat harming them.

The mystery of how sheepdogs can contain a flock of hundreds of sheep has confused mathematicians for generations.

The study published in the journal by Britain's Royal Society now aims to use the findings to create robotic sheepdogs in the future that may help control crowds or other groups of animals.

Dr. King, who has been studying swarms of other animals like fish, said the technology could help in studying groups that disperse in different directions when a single camera is present.

"Perhaps mathematicians and engineers or roboticists could put this in to their modeling. For example, if you want to send out swarms of drones to gather information and bring them all back," he added.