• Question: why are there sheep?

    Asked by beccasinden to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      I like this question, it made me laugh.

      I asked Amy who is a scientist in the Calcium zone and grew up on a livestock farm. She still goes home to help during lambing season.

      She said: Because we eat them.

      I think what she means is there are so many sheep because we have domesticated them for food.

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      and because there once was something that looked like a sheep but wasn’t quite a sheep, but over time, became a sheep with meat and milk and fleece.

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Yep.. there are sheep because we eat them. Weird I know.

      As an evolutionary trait, being a good eating animal for humans is a good way of ensuring survival of the species. As humans are currently dominant (for other reasons… not because we’re good to eat!) if you can get on well with the humans, they’ll look after you (at least until dinner time!)

      As an animal, you need to either stay out of the way (deep sea fish), do some work (horses), be useful for fur, skins or leather (cattle), make food (bees), or be good to eat (sheep).

      Same applies to plants too. Wheat (a type of grass with tasty seeds) is all over the world!

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      An interesting question!

      Why do we breed any type of animal: either for food or for company! We have domesticated a number of species over hundreds or thousands of years for our use e.g. dogs, cows, sheep, pigs, etc.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Why not?? There are stranger things in the world than sheep!! 😀

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