2017-04-27 10:17:47
Sheep are one of the most unfairly stereotyped animals on the planet. Almost
everything we believe about them is wrong
By Harriet Constable
19 April 2017
Reputation: Sheep are stupid, defenceless and harmless creatures that mope
about on hillsides doing not very much. They are good for two things: being
eaten and producing wool.
Reality: Sheep are actually surprisingly intelligent, with impressive memory
and recognition skills. They build friendships, stick up for one another in
fights, and feel sad when their friends are sent to slaughter. They are also
one of the most destructive creatures on the planet.
Intelligent. Complex. Sociable. All words we would quickly assign to humans,
but would not dream of extending to sheep, those fluffy white creatures you see
milling about in fields or served up with mint sauce on your dinner plate.
Instead, we have decreed that sheep (Ovis aries) are just plain stupid. This
opinion has not changed much since the 1700s, when George Washington, one of
the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, declared: "If the freedom
of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the
slaughter."
Nowadays, to be "a sheep" is to be someone who mindlessly follows others: "a
waste of flesh and brain cells," as Urban Dictionary puts it.
The truth is that sheep are far smarter than we know.
A 2001 study by Keith Kendrick, who is now at the University of Electronic
Science and Technology in China, found that they can recognise and remember at
least 50 individual faces for more than 2 years. That is longer than many
humans.
In the study, Kendrick's team trained sheep to distinguish between 25 pairs of
sheep, by associating one member of each pair with a food reward.
Sheep also have erotic preferences: 8% are homosexual
"Sheep showed clear behavioural signs of recognising individuals by vocalising
in response to their face pictures," says Kendrick. The team also found
evidence that sheep can differentiate facial expressions, and prefer a smile to
a frown.
At the time Kendrick told BBC News: "The way the sheep's brain is organised
suggests they must have some kind of emotional response to what they see in the
world."
Caroline Lee of the CSIRO in Australia has also studied sheep intelligence. She
discovered that sheep can learn how to navigate out of a complex maze. The
enticing sight of their fellow sheep friends awaiting them at the finish helped
them reach the exit.
Aside from being smart, sheep can be playful and joyful. You only need to watch
the video of Winter the Jumping Lamb to see for yourself. Sheep also have
erotic preferences: 8% are homosexual, making them one of the few species that
show lifelong preferences for same-sex partners.
Sheep also have complex social structures.
Over two decades ago, researchers from the University of California observed
rams for three years and discovered that they established firm friendships and
looked out for one another in times of need: "Rams were found to form long term
relationships [they] intervened on behalf of weaker colleagues and supported
each other in fights," says the 1993 study.
They were domesticated between 11000 and 9000 BC for the use of their woollen
fleece, meat and milk
These acts of loyalty and friendship-building are driven by emotions. A 2009
report published in Animal Welfare found that sheep are capable of experiencing
a whole range of feelings, from fear to anger, despair, boredom and happiness.
The researchers gave sheep intermittent access to food from a trough, and then
turned on an air blower above the trough at an unexpected moment while they
were eating. After the blower came on, the sheep bleated four times more than
sheep that were not disturbed, and their heart rates immediately increased.
"[As with humans], despair is triggered by situations which are evaluated as
sudden, unfamiliar, unpredictable and uncontrollable, whereas boredom results
from an overly predictable environment," write the authors.
Suddenly sheep do not seem so dumb after all.
It is ironic how little most of us know about sheep, given how deeply
entrenched they are in human culture. They were domesticated between 11000 and
9000 BC for the use of their woollen fleece, meat and milk. The animals have
been referred to by different cultures, religious texts and even astrology for
thousands of years.
They can deliver a painful kick to anyone who gets too close
For example, the Greek astrological sign Aries is a ram, and in ancient
Egyptian religion the ram was the symbol of several gods. Further, the common
phrase "to separate the sheep from the goats" comes from a passage in the New
Testament. In the story, the sheep (righteous people) find salvation with God,
and the goats (sinners) are sent to damnation. Baad goats.
Sheep are thought to have descended from wild mouflon that roamed Europe and
Asia. They were particularly common in ancient Mesopotamia, an area that
covered a large chunk of what we now call the Middle East, including modern-day
Iraq, Kuwait, east Syria and south-east Turkey.
These ancestors had mighty horns with which to defend themselves, but humans
have largely bred these out of modern sheep. Nowadays, domestic sheep are bred
to be big fluffy creatures, covered in wool that never stops growing so that
farmers make money all year round.
However, today's sheep still have a few tricks up their woolly sleeves.
For starters, they can deliver a painful kick to anyone who gets too close,
especially if they are defending their young. They can also run fast and scale
steep cliffs that many predators are not equipped to handle. Finally, their
peripheral vision is impressive: they have horizontal, slit-shaped pupils that
allow them to see behind themselves without turning their heads.
The populations of wild animals in Kenya fell by 68% between 1977 and 2016
Still, none of these defences are a match for us.
Humans very much like to eat and wear sheep: so much so that there are 1.2
billion sheep on the planet, according to data from the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.
The world's biggest producer of sheep is China, which is home to nearly 200
million of them. It is followed by Australia at over 70 million, India with
over 60 million, Iran with 45 million and Nigeria with 41 million. Sudan has
nearly 40 million sheep, while the UK has 33 million and New Zealand nearly 30
million.
In Kenya, where there are estimated to be over 17 million sheep raised for
slaughter, the animals are spelling catastrophe for wildlife.
A study published in September 2016 shows that the populations of wild animals
in Kenya fell by 68% between 1977 and 2016. The affected species included
warthogs, many species of antelope and the rare Grevy's zebra. During the same
period, sheep numbers increased by 76.3%.
The effects of drought are much more extreme now
"Aerial monitoring from the government of Kenya shows that sheep numbers have
gone up dramatically in the last 40 years," says lead author Joseph Ogutu of
the University of Hohenheim in Stuggart, Germany. "Sheep graze grass very low
to the ground, and in their huge numbers they decimate the grasslands. This is
terrible because most wild animals [like elephants, buffalo and zebra] need
taller grasses to eat."
In the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Ogutu says the buffalo population was
nearly 13,000 in 1992, but has since sharply decreased. "During the drought,
they were pushed out of feeding areas by sheep and other cattle, and the
buffalo population crashed by 76% in one year. They've never recovered."
Drought is not uncommon in Kenya, but the issue now is the number of animals,
both wild and domesticated, trying to survive it. "The effects of drought are
much more extreme now that there are so many sheep competing with wild animals
for the same resources," says Ogutu.
Ogutu and his colleagues are calling on the Kenyan government to limit the
number of sheep and other livestock, to prevent large wild animals going
extinct.
In their huge numbers, sheep are hugely destructive creatures
But what is happening in Kenya is a microcosm for a global story. The demand
for livestock products is still rising, putting pressure on the environment.
A 2006 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation explains why:
"Extensive grazing occupies and degrades vast areas of land the livestock
sector enters into more and direct competition for scarce land, water and other
natural resources in all, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all
agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet."
In their huge numbers, sheep are hugely destructive creatures. Our use of them
is contributing to the destruction of forests and to climate change, and
causing a shortage of fresh water.
Of course, it is hardly the fault of the sheep. But somehow they do not seem
quite so dumb and cuddly any more.