Sheep

• Its pupil is rectangular and horizontal, which gives it a field of view of some 300 degrees and lets it watch for predators almost without turning its head.
• It recognises and remembers for years the faces of several dozen individual sheep and particular people, according to the neuroscience studies carried out on the species.
• It was among the first hoofed animals to be domesticated, some 11,000 years ago, from the Asiatic mouflon in south-west Asia.
• At first it was kept only for meat. Wool came much later: the selection of woolly sheep began some 5,000 years ago, because the original fleece was short and mixed with coarse hair.
• The archaeological sites of central Anatolia document the process: pens at Aşıklı Höyük and selective slaughter of young males at Çayönü and Nevalı Çori, between 9000 and 8000 BC.
• It has more nuclear genetic diversity than other domestic species such as the cow or the dog, which points to a less restrictive domestication process.
• Its horizontally rectangular pupil gives it a field of vision close to 300 degrees, and it rotates its eye to keep the pupil aligned with the ground even when it lowers its head.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat & environment

Pasture, hill country and livestock holdings worldwide

Sexual maturity

18 months

Gestation / incubation

4.8 months

Litter / clutch size

1.58 (average)

Lifespan in captivity

20

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovis_orientalis_aries