🐾 Sheep

Sheep

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Ovis aries
• Family & relatives: A farm animal in the family Bovidae, related to goats, cattle, and wild sheep like the mouflon.
• How to spot it: A gentle, round animal covered in soft woolly fleece, with a calm face and often a short tail.

Its body & abilities

• Size: About 1 to 1.5 m long and 65 to 90 cm tall at the shoulder, depending on the breed.
• Weight: Usually about 45 to 100 kg (100 to 220 lb).
• Body & adaptations: Its thick wool keeps it warm, and its four-part stomach lets it chew cud to digest tough grass.
• Top speed: Can run at about 40 km/h (25 mph) when it needs to hurry.
• Strength: Sturdy and surefooted, some rams can butt heads hard when they play or compete.
• Senses: Wide-angle eyesight that sees almost all around, plus sharp hearing and a good sense of smell.
• Growing up: A lamb can stand and walk within minutes of birth, drinks its mother's milk, and grows up by about a year.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Farms, meadows, hills, and pastures, wherever there is grass to graze.
• Where in the world: Raised by people all over the world; sheep were among the first animals ever farmed.
• Territory: Sheep stay together in a flock and follow one another rather than defend land.

What it eats

• Diet: A herbivore that grazes grass and plants all day and drinks water from troughs or streams.
• Favorite foods: Grass, clover, hay, and other leafy plants.
• How it hunts: It does not hunt; instead it grazes low, nibbling grass with its lips and front teeth.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Walks and trots on strong split hooves and can climb hills and rocky slopes surefootedly.
• When it is active: Active by day, grazing in the morning and evening and resting to chew cud midday.
• Family life: Very social, living in a group called a flock and feeling safest together.
• How it talks: Communicates with bleats, and mothers and lambs know each other's special calls.
• Babies: After about five months a ewe gives birth to one or two lambs in spring, which she nurses and guards.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: Gives people wool, milk, and company; in the wild, wolves and coyotes are its natural predators.
• Conservation: A domestic farm animal that is very common worldwide and not at risk.
• Dangers: Main risks are predators, illness, and harsh weather.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: About 10 to 12 years, and sometimes longer with good care.
• In our culture: One of the earliest farm animals, sheep appear in stories, holidays, and sayings around the world.
• Where to see it: Farms, petting zoos, and countryside pastures nearly everywhere in the world.
• Fun fact: Sheep have such good memories that they can recognize and remember many faces for years.