sheep

{plural – the same spelling and pronunciation, ‘sheep’}

a kind of animal – mammal – four-legged – grass-eating – diurnal (= active during day)

There are two varieties of sheep: the wild sheep and the domesticated sheep:

[A]

wild sheep:

wild sheep look more like a goat, but there are some differences the experts know better.  The most striking differences are goats have ‘goat beard’, a tuft of long beard-like hair hanging from their chins, but sheep do not have those beards, the other one is goats have strong distinctive odour (body smell) but sheep do not have; some wild sheep species (kinds) have horns – short or long or large curved ones – some species do not have horns, yet some others have horns only in males; some species have short tails, some have long tails; size: the smallest (Mouflon sheep) 2-3 feet tall at the shoulder, and weight 35-45 Kg., and the largest (Gobi Argali) 4 feet tall at the shoulder, and weight 100-150 Kg, horns 20 inch long; several species found in most parts of the world, mostly in the rugged mountainous regions

Some common wild sheep are: Goral sheep, Bharal or blue sheep, (in America) bighorns – Rocky Mountain bighorn, Californian bighorn, Nelson bighorn, etc., thin horns – Texas Dall’s sheep, Stone’s sheep, etc., desert horn (sheep), Barbary sheep, Gobi Argali, Transcaspian Urial, Yakutia snow sheep, Hawaiian black ram (sheep), four-horned ram (sheep), Mouflon sheep, painted desert ram (sheep), Morco Polo sheep

Special Features:

The ‘Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep’ is the state mammal of Colorado; and the ‘desert bighorn sheep’ is the state mammal of Nevada, USA.

The wild sheep are mostly hunted as game animal – hunted for sport and to keep the head with horns as trophies!

Continue … [B] domestic sheep >>>