Tue, 15 Sep 2009

Sheep in the News - Evolutionary Edition

This shepherds psychological evaluation of his flock: they're like the old Apple ad campaign. They think different. Real different. But they all have personalities, and I've seen examples of different behaviors based on personality in my own barnyard.

We use our knowledge of the flock and their personalities to help us herd, drive and separate them as required. Being a fleece flock, with only 1 active ram right now, the ewes dominate, with one big wether - the bellwether.

Another interesting thing about our flock is that right now, there's actually four sub-flocks within the structure, mostly based on breed! But if you move one sub flock, the main flock will follow ... mostly. We also have a single "stand off" sheep - she's a Shetland ewe we collected, and is real leery of the bigger sheep.

I guess shepherds are really behavioral ecologists.

A team led by Denis Reale, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UQAM and Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Ecology, recently completed a study showing the link between personality, survival and reproductive success in male bighorn sheep. Their results were published in Journal of Evolutionary Biology. In addition to being a significant advance in our knowledge of these mammals, the research offers insight into personality differences in animals and humans, from an evolutionary perspective.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

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