Sheep (Ovis Aries) Are Quadrupedal, Ruminant Mammals Typically Kept As Livestock. Like
Sheep (Ovis Aries) Are Quadrupedal, Ruminant Mammals Typically Kept As Livestock. Like
Sheep (Ovis Aries) Are Quadrupedal, Ruminant Mammals Typically Kept As Livestock. Like
Like
most ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates.
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 (/juː/), 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; one of the
meat (lamb, hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber,
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
Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, and has been
and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with
sheep production.
There are a large lexicon of unique terms for sheep husbandry which vary considerably by
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
the Abrahamic traditions. In both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used
as sacrificial animals.