Bonding with Your Sheep, and Gain the Trust of Your Sheep
Bonding with Your Sheep. Sheep are a gentle, quiet and meek animal, belonging to the Bovidae family and genus Ovis. They are called ovines. They are ruminants( having complex stomach) and are commonly reared small animals to obtain worthy products such as milk, meat, and wool. Sheep farming is very common across the world. Even small scale farmers raise sheep for their livelihood.
Domestication has also favored the non-aggressive, docile nature of sheep, making it convenient for people, especially women and children, to look after sheep. Sheep were one of the earliest animals to be domesticated, and they have been over the centuries thoroughly domesticated.
Here we will discuss some important methods to create a strong association with sheep or to strengthen your bond with this cute and lovable animal.
Before that, there is a need to have a brief overview of sheep behavior.
Characteristics of Domesticated Sheep?
To get a comprehensive idea of sheep’s behavior is very much crucial to raise and handle sheep and this is very necessary for shepherds as well.
Sheep are ungulates and find their diet by grazing. They have a strong sense of flocking. In flocks, they feel safe and protected from predators. When you isolate them from their herd/flock, they become terrified and show stress.
There is safety in numbers. It is hard for a predator to pick a sheep, out of a group than to go after a few strays. Flocking instinct varies by breed, with the fine wool breeds being the most gregarious. It is this strong flocking instinct that allows one person to look after so many sheep
How Social Are Sheep?
According to animal behaviorists, sheep are considered social animals but usually with their own gender. You might have heard “Get one to go and they will all go” which means when in a herd, they listen to their leader to show their esteem. Because of their obedient nature, they are among the most popular animals loved by mankind.
As a matter of fact, sheep always keep visual contact with other sheep that better prevents excessive stress when moving, handling, or housing them.
Flocking Instinct is Helpful in Creating Bonds with Humans
As sheep follow a leader, if one sheep moves, the resting sheep will follow and move together. This flocking and following instinct of sheep enables humans to care for large numbers of sheep. It makes sheep comfortable to move or drive and enables a guardian dog to provide protection to a large flock. Domestication and thousands of generations of human contact have further strengthened this trait in sheep.
Rams, Male Sheep are Dominate?
Male sheep( rams) are socialized with other rams and they have their own group which is called “Bachelor herd” and females usually love to stay with each other in a nursery group that includes females and their young ones.
Young sheep learn from an early age to follow their leader (Instinctive feature). According to scientific literature, Male sheep fight for dominance in their group. Some ram each other at speeds up to 20 m/h 32 m/h). Dominance is gained when one male submits. This process can take hours
Do Sheep Have Strong Senses?
Sheep have all necessary senses which are essential for survival such as an excellent sense of smell; even it is believed that the olfactory system is more developed than humans. This good-smelling capability enables them to smell their predators and locate ewes (female sheep) in hearing by rams.
Sheep see colors but with poor depth perception. Although, they have unlimited peripheral vision.
Sheep have good hearing sense, loud and clagging sounds make them frightened.
Note: This is recommended for sheep keepers to not speak aloud. As loudness can cause the release of stress-related hormones, making sheep stressful and feeling depressed. Handlers should speak politely and in a calm voice to minimize stress. This thing will be helpful in creating a strong bond with sheep.
Touch sense is also developed as it is necessary to sense the predators and for ewes to let down milk when their young ones touch them.
Sheep can differentiate between the various feedstuffs due to their significant taste sense.
Do Sheep Become Friendly With Humans? Scientific Insight
Coming to the point, it is necessary for sheep keepers to develop a strong bond with their domesticated sheep for better handling, rearing, and generating profit.
Long ago, it was perceived that sheep are stupid and defenseless animals. But new studies have totally changed this concept. Sheep are amazingly intelligent animals. Even they have a great sense of recognition and good memory.
They build friendships, stick up for one another in fights, and feel gloomy when their friends are sent to slaughter. They are also one of the most destructive creatures on our planet.
A research study in 2001, by Keith Kendrick, who is now at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in China, found that sheep can recognize and remember at least 50 individual faces for more than 2 years. That is a way longer than many humans.
In the study, Kendrick’s team trained sheep to differentiate between 25 pairs of sheep, by associating one member of each pair with a food reward.
It was concluded that sheep showed clear behavioral signs of recognizing individuals by vocalizing in response to their face pictures. The team also found evidence that sheep can differentiate among facial expressions, and prefer a smile to a frown.
Another research study was conducted to explore the human bond with lambs. The level of cortisol and other stress-related hormones was monitored in the plasma of lambs who were being fed by a caregiver for the last six weeks.
It was concluded that lambs’ behaviors when isolated and when in contact with the human were correlated suggesting a response to social separation from the familiar caregiver more than to social isolation from congeners.
No significant changes in cortisol levels were observed during the test. Levels of other stress hormones did not vary during human contact but increased when the familiar caregiver left the lamb alone in the test pen. So, it became clear that lambs displayed affiliative responses towards their caregiver.
It is suggested that by keeping good contact from an early age, sheep become familiar and social with humans. It is a fun way to be gentle with your sheep.
In addition to that, a study was conducted to observe the behavior of some lambs, as sheep are very timid to new humans at the start, but due to the constant exposure, they become pretty much familiar and build up bonds with sheep.
These results suggested that 40 min of positive human contact at age 1–3 days nicely reduced the lamb timidity to people. Socialization of lambs to humans need not disrupt the primary lamb–dam bond, and it may have positive management as well as welfare implications.
3 Suggestions to Gain the Trust of Your Sheep?
There are various ways to gain sheep’s trust if you are raising sheep for the first time and want to develop a positive association with your pretty sheep. As it becomes difficult if you have a large flock size. Gaining sheep’s trust takes some time and patience.
1) Regular Visits to the Flock
The first step towards handling sheep in a stress-free manner is to get them accustomed to being around the people who will handle them. Generally, based on what we have heard from shepherds and study in literature,, a common recommendation seems to be to “go into the flock”, i.e. to spend lots of time and often, with sheep. If necessary, you may confine yourself with the sheep in a small space.
Bread as well as pellet feeds are useful in both initiating as well as restoring friendships. Getting the sheep used to people is not a one-off endeavor. Keep constant contact with sheep and offer them feed, regardless of situation and season, otherwise, you will become a stranger.
2) Be Their Leader
As you know, this is the nature of sheep to follow their leader. If you or your designated shepherd becomes successful in becoming a friend with sheep then, you can become the leader-ewe or ram. Every morning, step into the flock by loud baaing. Sheep will show interest. Mostly this happens during the fall-winter season when you will bring yummy feed for them, they will come fast. In the summer, they are lazier and sometimes don’t prefer moving to you, if there is hope for a reward.
In the summer season, try to accustomed sheep with you by taking care of them and shearing them.
Note: Don’t chase and apply any force. Handle gently to keep them stress-free.
3) Visit Your Sheep in Small Spaces
Space must not be too large, it must be confined according to the size of the flock and for their easy momentum.
If you provide too large space, they will escape and it will create trouble while treating and handling them.
The shepherd can stay with the sheep and let them get accustomed to the situation.
So, space must be ideal neither too tight, nor large.
CONCLUSION
Sheep loves a smiley face. Ewes become frustrated when you pick up their lambs, it is recommended to approach politely and gently to handle lambs to gain mothers trust. Always try to observe any abnormal behavior due to any disease or during the mating season. During the mating season, rams become aggressive and destructive. Funny and interesting approaches must be taken to create bonds and become trustworthy people for your sheep.
BE GENTLE GET TRUST
Author: Dr. John Abbass
DVM M. Phil (Animal production & Welfare)
REFERENCES
Coulon, M., Nowak, R., Peyrat, J., Chandèze, H., Boissy, A., & Boivin, X. (2015). Do lambs perceive regular human stroking as pleasant? Behavior and heart rate variability analyses. PLoS ONE, 10(2), e0118617
da Costa, A. P., Leigh A. E., Man, M.-S., & Kendrick, K. M. (2004). Face pictures reduce behavioral, autonomic, endocrine, and neural indices of stress and fear in sheep.
https://www.msdvetmanual.com/behavior/normal-social-behavior-and-behavioral-problems-of-domestic-animals/social-behavior-of-sheep
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