Description/Behavior • Poetry/Stories • Pictures

Description/Behavior:

According to Dr. Rutherford, a sheep specialist, of the Cal Poly Animal Science Department, normal behavior within any 24 hour period consists of 8 hours of grazing, 8 hours of sleeping, and 8 hours of ruminating (where the more fibrous parts of the harvested forage are regurgitated from the Rumen to be further broken down by chewing).Other ruminants spend less or more time in order to accomplish these things, with elephants needing to take nearly 18 hours of eating and ruminating in order to provide themselves with nutrition.

Sheep are a prey animal. They depend upon being in a group for safety - as they can't outrun or outfight their predators. They like to be at the highest part of the field in order to see and smell predators most easily. If they are in an area with adequate nutrition and they can get their belly full during daylight hours, they will bed down in group typically at some high point in a field. They might seek the shelter of trees or rocks if there is inclement weather. If nutrition is limited, they might need to continue to graze even when light gets scarce. If there is a shortage of feed or if the feed is so coarse that it requires more than 8 hours of cud-chewing, they simply won't get enough sleep. Animals (including you) who don't get enough sleep do not function as well and are more susceptible to disease. Therefore, requiring domestic grazers to subsist on plants that they can't digest easily sets them up for health problems.

Of course , sense of smell and hearing are the most important senses in terms of detecting predators. For this reason, most predator attacks on sheep occur at night, often while the sheep are soundly.

Text References

Rutherford, Rob Dr. Personal Corrospondence. 03 May 2004.

http://www.absolutelypoetry.com/author/richard-burton/black-sheep.html

Poetry/Stories:

Black Sheep

by: Richard Burton (1861-1940)

From their folded mates they wander far,
Their ways seem harsh and wild;
They follow the beck of a baleful star,
Their paths are dream-beguiled.

Yet haply they sought but a wider range,
Some loftier mountain-slope,
And little recked of the country strange
Beyond the gates of hope.

And haply a bell with a luring call
Summoned their feet to tread
Midst the cruel rocks, where the deep pitfall
And the lurking snare are spread.

Maybe, in spite of their tameless days
Of outcast liberty,
They're sick at heart for the homely ways
Where their gathered brothers be.

And oft at night, when the plains fall dark
And the hills loom large and dim,
For the Shepherd's voice they mutely hark,
And their souls go out to him.

Meanwhile, "Black sheep! Black sheep!" we cry,
Safe in the inner fold;
And maybe they hear, and wonder why,
And marvel, out in the cold.

Pictures:

Sheep 01.jpg	Sheep 02.jpg	Sheep 03.jpg	Sheep 1.jpg	Sheep in pen.jpg
Sheep in pen (1).jpg	sheep 2.jpg	sheep 3.jpg

Picture References

Sheep in Pasture

Sheep Stands Alone

Including photography by Mollie Small