Often when I walk in a residential neighborhood, there are animal statues in the yards — flamingos, foxes, deer, dogs, frogs, etc. Today, there is only one lone sheep — no other statues of animals around. It makes me wonder why these homeowners chose this particular animal to put in their yard. Did they used to be sheep farmers who have now retired and moved to the city? Maybe they had a pet sheep and this statue is an exact replica. Or perhaps their last name is Sheep or Lamb. Whatever the reason, it is a lovely likeness of the curly-haired animal. I can’t say that I have personally been around sheep except at the State Fair. My idea of getting close to sheep is wearing a sheepskin coat. Many people’s love of animals leans toward those that are warm and fuzzy instead of those that are cold and slimy. A sheep radiates warmth and fluffiness, an icon of coziness. Plus, they help you get to sleep by counting them. As I see it, there’s really nothing negative to be said about sheep. But, what do I know. Let’s find out more about these woolly creatures.
According to Wikipedia, sheep or Ovis aries are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like most ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ewe, an intact male as a ram — occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether and a young sheep as a lamb.
Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat — lamb, hogget or mutton — and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber and is usually harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones in Commonwealth countries, and lamb in the United States — including from adults. Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals or as model organisms for science.
Sheep husbandry or sheep farming is practiced throughout the majority of the inhabited world and has been fundamental to many civilizations. In the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production.
There is a large lexicon of unique terms for sheep husbandry which vary considerably by region and dialect. Use of the word sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word “scēap;” it is both the singular and plural name for the animal. A group of sheep is called a flock. Many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing and age.
Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture and find representation in much modern language and symbology. As livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies — such as the Golden Fleece — and major religions, especially the Abrahamic traditions. In both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals.
History of domestic sheep
The history of the domestic sheep goes back to between 11000 and 9000 BCE, and the domestication of the wild mouflon in ancient Mesopotamia. Sheep are among the first animals to have been domesticated by humans. These sheep were primarily raised for meat, milk and skins. Woolly sheep began to be developed around 6000 BCE. They were then imported to Africa and Europe via trading.
Wild ancestors
The exact line of descent between domestic sheep and their wild ancestors is unclear. The most common hypothesis states that Ovis aries is descended from the Asiatic O. orienalis species of mouflon. A few breeds of sheep, such as the Castlemilk Moorit from Scotland, were formed through crossbreeding with wild European mouflon.
The urial was once thought to have been a forebear of domestic sheep, as they occasionally interbreed with mouflon in the Iranian part of their range. However, the urial, argali and snow sheep have a different number of chromosones than other Ovis species, making a direct relationship implausible, and phylogenetic studies show no evidence of urial ancestry. Further studies comparing European and Asian breeds of sheep showed significant genetic differences between the two. Two explanations for this phenomenon have been posited. The first explanation is that a currently unknown species or subspecies of wild sheep contributed to the formation of domestic sheep. The second explanation is that this variation is the result of multiple waves of capture from wild mouflon, similar to the known development of other livestock.
One chief difference between ancient sheep and modern breeds is the technique by which wool could be collected. Primitive sheep can be shorn, but many can have their wool plucked out by hand in a process called "rooing." Rooing helps to leave behind the coarse fibers called kemps which are still longer than the soft fleece. The fleece may also be collected from the field after it falls out naturally. This rooing trait survives today in unrefined breeds such as the Soay and many Shetlands. Indeed, the Soay’s — along with other Northern European breeds with short tails — naturally rooing fleece, diminutive size and horns in both sexes, are closely related to ancient sheep. Originally, weaving and spinning wool was a handicraft practiced at home, rather than an industry. Babylonians, Sumerians and Persians all depended on sheep; and although linen was the first fabric to be fashioned in to clothing, wool was a prized product. The raising of flocks for their fleece was one of the earliest industries, and flocks were a medium of exchange in barter economies. Numerous Biblical figures kept large flocks, and subjects of the king of Judea were taxed according to the number of rams they owned.
In Asia
Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated by humans — although the domestication of dogs may be over 20,000 years earlier; the domestication date is estimated to fall between 11,000 and 8,000 B.C in Mesopotamia or possibly Mehrgarh in South Asia around 7th millennium BC, which happened independently. Their wild relatives have several characteristics, such as a relative lack of aggression, a manageable size, early sexual maturity, a social nature and high reproduction rates, which made them particularly suitable for domestication. Today, Ovis aries is an entirely domesticated animal that is largely dependent on humans for its health and survival. Feral sheep do exist, but exclusively in areas devoid of large predators — usually islands — and not on the scale of feral goats, pigs or dogs, although some feral populations have remained isolated long enough to be recognized as distinct breeds.
The rearing of sheep for secondary products ‒ and the resulting breed development — began in either southwest Asia or western Europe. Archaeological evidence from statuary found at sites in Iran suggests that selection for woolly sheep may have begun around 6000 BCE, and the earliest woven wool garments have been dated to two to three thousand years later. Before this, when a sheep was slaughtered for its meat, the hide would be tanned and worn as a kind of tunic. Researchers believe that the development of such clothing encouraged humans to live in areas far colder than the Fertile Crescent, where temperatures averaged 70 °F. Sheep molars and bones found at Çatalhöyük suggest that populations of domestic sheep may have been established in the area. By that span of the Bronze Age, sheep with all the major features of modern breeds were widespread throughout western Asia.
The residents of the ancient settlement of Jeitun, Turkmenistan, which dates to 6000 BCE, kept sheep and goats as their primary livestock. There have also been numerous identifications of Nomadic pastoralism in archaeological sites, identified by a prevalence of sheep and goat bones, a lack of grain or grain-processing equipment, very limited architecture showing a set of characteristic traits, a location outside the region's zone of agriculture and ethnographic analogy to modern nomadic pastoral peoples.
There is a large but constantly declining minority of nomadic and seminomadic pastoralists in countries such as Saudi Arabia (probably less than 3%), Iran (4%) and Afghanistan (at most 10%).
In India, there are efforts to “grade up,” or improve the quality of, the native desi sheep breed by crossing it with Merino and other high-quality wool sheep. This is being done in an effort to produce a desi sheep that produces high-quality wool and mutton.
Sheep are not an important part of China's agricultural economy, since the majority of China does not have the large open pastures required for sheep-rearing. Sheep farming is more common in the northwestern provinces of the country, where such tracts of land exist. China does have a native sheep breed, the zhan. The population of the breed has been in decline since 1985, despite government promotion of the breed.
The Japanese government encouraged farmers to raise sheep throughout the 19th century. Sheep-rearing programs began to import Yorkshire, Berkshire, Spanish merino and numerous Chinese and Mongolian sheep breeds, encouraged by government promotion of sheep farming. However, a lack of knowledge on the farmer's part of how to successfully keep sheep and the government's failure to provide information to those importing the sheep they promoted led to the project's failure, and in 1888 it was discontinued.
Sheep herding has been one of the main economic activities and lifestyles of Mongolians for millennia. Mongolian sheepherding traditions and modern science are well developed. Mongolian selection and veterinary science classifies the sheep herd of the country by (1) wool fiber's length, thinness and softness, (2) capability of surviving at various altitudes, (3) physical appearance, tail form, size, and other criteria. The most common sheep breeds are Mongol Khalha, Gov-altai, Baidrag, Bayad, Uzenchin, Sumber and number of other breeds, all being of the fat-tailed family of breeds.
A census of the entire domestic animal stock of the country is carried out annually. At the end of 2017, the census counted more than 30 million sheep that make up 45.5% of the entire herding stock.
Annually before the Lunar New Year, the government awards the prestigious “Best Herder” nomination to select herders.
In Africa
Sheep entered the African continent not long after their domestication in western Asia. A minority of historians once posited a contentious African theory of origin for Ovis aries. This theory is based primarily on rock art interpretations and osteological evidence from Barbary sheep. The first sheep entered North Africa via Sinai and were present in ancient Egyptian society between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago. Sheep have always been part of subsistence farming in Africa, but today the only country that keeps significant numbers of commercial sheep is South Africa, with 28.8 million head.
In Ethiopia, there are several varieties of sheep landrace. Attempts have been made to classify the sheep based on factors such as tail shape and wool type, and H. Epstein made an attempt at classifying them this way by dividing the breeds into 14 types based on those two factors. However, in 2002, further genetic analysis revealed that there are only four distinct varieties of Ethiopian sheep: short-fat-tailed, long-fat-tailed, fat-rumped and thin-tailed.
In Europe
Sheep husbandry spread quickly in Europe. Excavations show that in about 6000 BCE, during the Neolithic period of prehistory, the Castelnovien people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues near present-day Marseille in the south of France, were among the first in Europe to keep domestic sheep. Practically from its inception, ancient Greek civilization relied on sheep as primary livestock and were even said to name individual animals. Scandinavian sheep of a type seen today — with short tails and multicolored fleece — were also present early on. Later, the Roman Empire kept sheep on a wide scale, and the Romans were an important agent in the spread of sheep raising through much of Europe. Pliny the Elder, in his “Natural History,” speaks at length about sheep and wool. Declaring "Many thanks, too, do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods and for giving us the use of its fleece." He goes on to detail the breeds of ancient sheep and the many colors, lengths and qualities of wool. Romans also pioneered the practice of blanketing sheep, in which a fitted coat — today usually of nylon — is placed over the sheep to improve the cleanliness and luster of its wool.
During the Roman occupation of the British Isles, a large wool processing factory was established in Winchester, England in about 50 CE. By 1000 CE, England and Spain were recognized as the twin centers of sheep production in the Western world. As the original breeders of the fine-wooled merino sheep that have historically dominated the wool trade, the Spanish gained great wealth. Wool money largely financed Spanish rulers and thus the voyages to the New World by conquistadors. The powerful Mesta was a corporation of sheep owners mostly drawn from Spain's wealthy merchants, Catholic clergy and nobility that controlled the merino flocks. By the 17th century, the Mesta held upwards of 2 million head of merino sheep.
Mesta flocks followed a seasonal pattern of transhumance across Spain. In the spring, they left the winter pastures in Extremadura and Andalusia to graze on their summer pastures in Castile, returning again in the autumn. Spanish rulers eager to increase wool profits gave extensive legal rights to the Mesta, often to the detriment of local peasantry. The huge merino flocks had a lawful right of way for their migratory routes or cañadas. Towns and villages were obliged by law to let the flocks graze on their common land, and the Mesta had its own sheriffs that could summon offending individuals to its own tribunals.
Exportation of merinos without royal permission was also a punishable offense, thus ensuring a near-absolute monopoly on the breed until the mid-18th century. After the breaking of the export ban, fine wool sheep began to be distributed worldwide. The export to Rambouillet by Louis XVI in 1786 formed the basis for the modern Rambouillet or French Merino breed. After the Napoleonic Wars and the global distribution of the once-exclusive Spanish stocks of Merinos, sheep raising in Spain reverted to hardy coarse-wooled breeds such as the Churra and was no longer of international economic significance.
The sheep industry in Spain was an instance of migratory flock management, with large homogenous flocks ranging over the entire country. The management model used in England was quite different but had a similar importance to economy of the country. Up until the early 20th century, owling — the smuggling of sheep or wool out of the country — was a punishable offense, and to this day the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords sits on a cushion known as the Woolsack. In the photo, the woolsack with backrest can be seen facing the throne in the upper foreground, in front of the judges' woolsack in the House of Lords, Westminster, c.1870-1885.
The high concentration and more sedentary nature of shepherding in the UK allowed sheep especially adapted to their particular purpose and region to be raised, thereby giving rise to an exceptional variety of breeds in relation to the land mass of the country. This greater variety of breeds also produced a valuable variety of products to compete with the superfine wool of Spanish sheep. By the time of Elizabeth I's rule, the sheep and wool trade was the primary source of tax revenue to the Crown of England, and the country was a major influence in the development and spread of sheep husbandry.
An important event not only in the history of domestic sheep, but of all livestock, was the work of Robert Bakewell in the 18th century. Before his time, breeding for desirable traits was often based on chance, with no scientific process for selection of breeding stock. Bakewell established the principles of selective breeding — especially line breeding — in his work with sheep, horses and cattle; his work later influenced Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin. His most important contribution to sheep was the development of the Leicester Longwool, a quick-maturing breed of blocky conformation that formed the basis for many vital modern breeds. Today, the sheep industry in the UK has diminished significantly, though pedigreed rams can still fetch around 100,000 pounds sterling at auction.
In the Americas
No ovine species native to the Americas has ever been domesticated, despite being closer genetically to domestic sheep than many Asian and European species. The first domestic sheep in North America — most likely of the Churra breed — arrived with Christopher Columbus’ second voyage in 1493. The next translantic shipment to arrive was with Hernán Cortés in 1519, landing in Mexico. No export of wool or animals is known to have occurred from these populations, but flocks did disseminate throughout what is now Mexico and the southwest United States with Spanish colonists. Churras were also introduced to the Navajo tribe of Native Americans and became a key part of their livelihood and culture. The modern presence of the Navajo-Churro breed is a result of this heritage.
North America
The next transport of sheep to North America was not until 1607, with the voyage of the Susan Constant to Virginia. However, the sheep that arrived in that year were all slaughtered because of a famine, and a permanent flock was not to reach the colony until two years later in 1609. In two decades' time, the colonists had expanded their flock to a total of 400 head. By the 1640s there were about 100,000 head of sheep in the 13 colonies, and in 1662, a woolen mill was built in Waertown, Massachusetts. Especially during the periods of political unrest and civil war in Britain spanning the 1640s and 1650s which disrupted maritime trade, the colonists found it pressing to produce wool for clothing. Many islands off the coast were cleared of predators and set aside for sheep: Nantucket, Long Island, Martha’s Vineyard and small islands in Boston Harbor were notable examples. There remain some rare breeds of American sheep — such as the Hog Island sheep — that were the result of island flocks. Placing semi-feral sheep and goats on islands was common practice in colonization during this period. Early on, the British government banned further export of sheep to the Americas — or wool from it — in an attempt to stifle any threat to the wool trade in the British Isles. One of many restrictive trade measures that precipitated the American Revolution, the sheep industry in the Northeast grew despite the bans.
Gradually, beginning in the 19th century, sheep production in the U.S. moved westward. Today, the vast majority of flocks reside on Western range lands. During this westward migration of the industry, competition between sheep — sometimes called "range maggots" — and cattle operations grew more heated, eventually erupting into range wars. Other than simple competition for grazing and water rights, cattlemen believed that the secretions of the foot glands of sheep made cattle unwilling to graze on places where sheep had stepped. As sheep production centered on the U.S. western ranges, it became associated with other parts of Western culture, such as the rodeo. In modern America, a minor event in rodeos is mutton busting, in which children compete to see who can stay atop a sheep the longest before falling off. Another effect of the westward movement of sheep flocks in North America was the decline of wild species such as Bighorn sheep. Most diseases of domestic sheep are transmittable to wild ovines, and such diseases — along with overgrazing and habitat loss — are named as primary factors in the plummeting numbers of wild sheep. Sheep production peaked in North America during the 1940s and 1950s at more than 55 million head. By 2013 the number of sheep in the United States was 10 percent what it had been in the early 1940s.
In the 1970s, Roy McBride, a farmer from Alpine, Texas, invented a collar filled with the poison compound 1080 to protect his livestock from coyotes, which tended to attack the throat. This device is known as the livestock protection collar and is in widespread use in Texas, as well as in South Africa.
South America
In South America, especially in Patagonia, there is an active modern sheep industry. Sheep keeping was largely introduced through immigration to the continent by Spanish and British peoples, for whom sheep were a major industry during the period. South America has a large number of sheep, but the highest-producing nation — Brazil — kept only just over 15 million head in 2004, far fewer than most centers of sheep husbandry. The primary challenges to the sheep industry in South America are the phenomenal drop in wool prices in the late 20th century and the loss of habitat through logging and overgrazing. The most influential region internationally is that of Patagonia, which has been the first to rebound from the fall in wool prices. With few predators and almost no grazing competition — the only large native grazing mammal is the guanco — the region is prime land for sheep raising. The most exceptional area of production is surrounding the La Plata River in the Pampas region. Sheep production in Patagonia peaked in 1952 at more than 21 million head, but has steadily fallen to fewer than 10 million today. Most operations focus on wool production for export from Merino and Corriedale sheep; the economic sustainability of wool flocks has fallen with the drop in prices, while the cattle industry continues to grow.
In Australia and New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand are crucial players in the contemporary sheep industry, and sheep are an iconic part of both countries' culture and economy. New Zealand has the highest density of sheep per capita; sheep outnumber the human population 12 to 1. Australia is indisputably the world's largest exporter of sheep — and cattle. In 2007, New Zealand even declared February 15 their official National Lamb Day to celebrate the country's history of sheep production.
The First Fleet brought the initial population of 70 sheep from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia in 1788. The next shipment was of 30 sheep from Calcutta and Ireland in 1793. All of the early sheep brought to Australia were exclusively used for the dietary needs of the penal colonies. The beginnings of the Australian wool industry were due to the efforts of Captain John Macarthur. At Macarthur's urging, 16 Spanish merinos were imported in 1797, effectively beginning the Australian sheep industry. By 1801 Macarthur had 1,000 head of sheep, and in 1803 he exported 245 lbs of wool to England. Today, Macarthur is generally thought of as the father of the Australian sheep industry.
The growth of the sheep industry in Australia was explosive. In 1820, the continent held 100,000 sheep; a decade later it had one million. By 1840, New South Wales alone kept 4 million sheep; flock numbers grew to 13 million in a decade. While much of the growth in both nations was due to the active support of Britain in its desire for wool, both worked independently to develop new high-production breeds: the Corriedale, Coolalee, Coopworth, Perendale, Polwarth, Booroola Merino, Peppin Merino and Poll Merino were all created in New Zealand or Australia. Wool production was a fitting industry for colonies far from their home nations. Before the advent of fast air and maritime shipping, wool was one of the few viable products that was not subject to spoiling on the long passage back to British ports. The abundant new land and milder winter weather of the region also aided the growth of the Australian and New Zealand sheep industries.
Flocks in Australia have always been largely range bands on fenced land and are aimed at production of medium to superfine wool for clothing and other products as well as meat. New Zealand flocks are kept in a fashion similar to English ones, in fenced holdings without shepherds. Although wool was once the primary income source for New Zealand sheep owners — especially during the New Zealand wool boom — today it has shifted to meat production for export.
Cultural impact
Sheep have had a strong presence in many cultures, especially in areas where they form the most common type of livestock. In the English language, to call someone a sheep or ovine may allude that they are timid and easily led. In contradiction to this image, male sheep are often used as symbols of virility and power; the logos of the Los Angeles Rams football team and the Dodge Ram pickup truck allude to males of the bighorn sheep.
Counting sheep is popularly said to be an aid to sleep, and some ancient systems of counting sheep persist today. Sheep also enter in colloquial sayings and idiom frequently with such phrases as "black sheep." To call an individual a black sheep implies that they are an odd or disreputable member of a group. This usage derives from the recessive trait that causes an occasional black lamb to be born into an entirely white flock. These black sheep were considered undesirable by shepherds, as black wool is not as commercially viable as white wool. Citizens who accept overbearing governments have been referred to by the Portmanteau neologism of sheeple. Somewhat differently, the adjective "sheepish" is also used to describe embarrassment.
In heraldry
In British heraldry, sheep appear in the form of rams, sheep proper and lambs. These are distinguished by the ram being depicted with horns and a tail, the sheep with neither and the lamb with its tail only. A further variant of the lamb, termed the Paschal lamb, is depicted as carrying a Christian cross and with a halo over its head. Rams' heads — portrayed without a neck and facing the viewer — are also found in British armories. The fleece — depicted as an entire sheepskin carried by a ring around its midsection — originally became known through its use in the arms of the Order of the Golden Fleece and was later adopted by towns and individuals with connections to the wool industry.
Religion and folklore
In antiquity, symbolism involving sheep cropped up in religions in the ancient Near East, tMideast, and Mediterranean area: Çatalhöyük, ancient Egyptian religion, the Cana'anite and Phoenician tradition, Judaism, Greek religion and others. Religious symbolism and ritual involving sheep began with some of the first known faiths: Skulls of rams, along with bulls, occupied central placement in shrines at the Çatalhöyük settlement in 8,000 BCE. In ancient Egyptian religion, the ram was the symbol of several gods: Khnum, Heryshaf and Amun in his incarnation as a god of fertility. Other deities occasionally shown with ram features include the goddess Ishtar, Phoenician god Baal-Hamon and Babylonian god Ea-Oannes. In Madagascar, sheep were not eaten, as they were believed to be incarnations of the souls of ancestors.
There are many ancient Greek references to sheep: that of Chrysomallos, the golden-fleeced ram, continuing to be told through into the modern era. Astrologically, Aries, the ram, is the first sign of the classical Greek zodiac, and the sheep is the eighth of the 12 animals associated with the 12-year cycle of in the Chinese zodiac, related to the Chinese calendar. In Mongolia, shagai are an ancient form of dice made from the cuboid bones of sheep that are often used for fortunetelling purposes.
Sheep play an important role in all the Abrahamic faiths; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and the Islamic prophet Muhammad were all shepherds. According to the Biblical story of the binding of Isaac, a ram is sacrificed as a substitute for Isaac after an angel stays Abraham's hand — in the Islamic tradition, Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael. Eid al-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which sheep or other animals are sacrificed in remembrance of this act. Sheep are occasionally sacrificed to commemorate important secular events in Islamic cultures. Greeks and Romans sacrificed sheep regularly in religious practice, and Judaism once sacrificed sheep as a Korban or sacrifice, such as the Passover lamb. Ovine symbols — such as the ceremonial blowing of a shofar — still find a presence in modern Judaic traditions.
Collectively, followers of Christianity are often referred to as a flock, with Christ as the Good Shepherd, and sheep are an element in the Christian iconography of the birth of Jesus. Some Christian saints are considered patrons of shepherds, and even of sheep themselves. Christ is also portrayed as the Sacrificial Lamb of God and Easter celebrations in Greece and Romania traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. A church leader is often called the pastor, which is derived from the Latin word for shepherd. In many western Christian traditions bishops carry a staff, which also serves as a symbol of the episcopal office, known as a crosier, which is modeled on the shepherd’s crook.
Sheep are key symbols in fables and nursery rhymes like “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” “Little Bo Peep,” “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb;” novels such as George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and Haruki Murakami’s “A Wild Sheep Chase;” songs such as Bach’s “Sheep may safely graze” and Pink Floyd’s “Sheep” and poems like William Blake’s “The Lamb.”