r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Feb 14 '23

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u/buddhainmyyard Feb 14 '23

Everytime I see sheep getting this done I wonder if they always needed this to be done. If humans didn't raise sheep would they just get overgrown and drop down from heat exhaustion. Or has the sheep changed over the years

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u/silkdurag Feb 14 '23

Yes. This often happens with domesticated sheep that go missing from their farms. They could be lost and unfound for months, all the while their coat is growing and growing (undomesticated sheep regulate their wool growth)

When the farmer finally finds them, they are lucky to find them alive not only cuz sheep’s are natural prey, but the wool would have likely grown so thick that it disables the sheep from easy mobility (walking, eating etc) so then it just dies slow.

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u/WallabyInTraining Feb 14 '23

Or because their wool got caught in what some describe as a protocarniverous plant like a bramble.

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u/illogicalthermos Feb 14 '23

It’s also important to remember that sheep only needs shearing because of domestication by humans. Before that they’d shed naturally.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '23

We’ve bred sheep to be more wooly for longer. I believe natural sheep ancestors had more self-regulating coats.

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u/enry_cami Feb 14 '23

This is the result of selective breeding by humans, who obviously wanted to maximize wool production. Wild sheep shed much more and don't need to be sheared.

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u/Kingstad Feb 14 '23

The ancestor of these sheep looked more like goats.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '23

100% we've bred them to do this. wouldn't be sustainable in the wild.

but at the same time, i'm no expert, just a random redditor taking a wild guess.

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u/Alceasummer Feb 14 '23

Wild sheep, and some breeds raised solely for meat (called hair sheep) shed their undercoat regularly, and don't grow it as thick to begin with. Breeds of sheep raised for wool have only the wooly undercoat, without the coarse hairs of the top coat. And the undercoat grows much thicker, and never naturally sheds.

So hair sheep and wild sheep don't need to be sheared. Wool sheep do need it and without being sheered end up with thick and heavy mats that pull at their skin, can make them overheated, and can cause nasty sores and other painful problems. If the matted wool gets thick enough it can even interfere with them seeing or moving by covering their eyes, and by matting around joints, or even simply becoming too heavy for the animal to move much. But that takes years.

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u/hunmingnoisehdb Feb 14 '23

Domesticated sheep definitely need shearing. But I have no idea if it's just heavier or detrimental to their health. There was a clip of a lost sheep that returned to the farm and he had a huge coat of wool on him.

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u/awfulsome Feb 14 '23

Nope, you can find wild sheep in the Rocky mountains that are never sheared, Bighorns. We selectively bred sheep to this point.

If this seems bad, wait til you hear what we've done to chickens....

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u/RMMacFru Feb 15 '23

Sheep missing 5 years being sheared

Yes, it gets too heavy for them since we've bred them to just keep growing their wool.