Sheep are medium-sized herbivorous mammals that graze on grass and berries. Sheep are mainly farmed for their meat and wool but sheep are also occasionally farmed for their milk.
Fast Facts about Sheep
1. There are over 1 billion sheep in the world.
2. Adult male sheep are known as rams. Adult female sheep are known as ewes.
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3. A group of sheep is known as a herd, flock or mob.
4. Sheep like to stay close to others in a herd which makes them easier to move together to new pastures.
5. Sheep have excellent memories for the faces of both other sheep and humans which they can remember for several years. They do this by using a similar neural process and part of the brain that humans use to remember.
6. At one time all sheep were wild. Around 10,000 BC sheep were domesticated by the humans.
7. Wild sheep tend to be larger than domesticated species, the largest (Argali) being 1.2m tall. They also have longer horns which they use to defend themselves from predators.
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8. The sheep is most closely related to the goat and although they are very similar, sheep and goats are two separate species of animal therefore meaning that any offspring that a sheep and a goat couple produce will be infertile so sheep and goat hybrids are very rare.
9. Female sheep tend to give birth to one lamb and sometimes twin. Some species of sheep are known to give birth to larger litters and other species of sheep will also breed all year round rather than just once a year.
10. The lifespan of Sheep is 5-10 years.
