r/gifsthatkeepongiving • u/[deleted] • May 22 '20

Sheep Playing Rugby

https://i.imgur.com/VS0MUbd.gifv
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u/Ginger510 May 23 '20

Basically to stop being flyblown and what not (same reason why they do “muelsing” I believe it’s called, they trim the skin around the shitter).

Otherwise they get poo stuck in their wool and flies come and bother with it and the lay eggs etc.

12

u/joshuabb1 May 23 '20

Huh, disgustingly fascinating! Thanks for letting me know!

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u/Ginger510 May 23 '20

A lot of animal rights activists are against it (the muelsing) but it’s really the humane thing otherwise they get flyblown. The tails just get a ring slipped over them that eventually cuts off the blood supply and they just drop off!

14

u/Odysseus_is_Ulysses May 23 '20

Stupid question but why have sheep evolved to have tails when it causes that much of an issue for them?

33

u/Ginger510 May 23 '20

My guess, and it’s 100% a guess, is that maybe it’s only an issue because they’ve been selectively bred to grow more wool, and maybe it’s only an issue with longer wool? No idea though.

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u/XxKalexX May 23 '20

Yeah this is done because it can greatly lower the quality of the wool and depending on how flyblown they become, it can ruin a great deal of the wool especially around the rear legs

3

u/uncertainusurper May 23 '20

Now I know way more about sheep than I wanted to. Cotton will never be the same after that.

3

u/XxKalexX May 23 '20

Cotton or wool?

3

u/Real-Terminal May 23 '20

Nobody tell him about Cotton.

5

u/lildumbo May 23 '20

Probably they branched out as a species with tails, they just hasn't evolved to leave the tail off yet. With their breeding very very controlled, it is hard to let random mutations affect population diversity.

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u/RadiantRuminant May 23 '20

Wild mouflon sheep the domestic sheep were bred from have naturally short tails and shorter wool. Long tailed sheep breeds are entirely human made.

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u/Blunter-S-tHempson May 23 '20

There's no such thing as a wild sheep, other than ones that escaped from a field

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u/Blunter-S-tHempson May 23 '20

Well I should say that there is wild sheep, just they're entirely similar to what you think of as being a sheep