The ever-evolving sheep.

It is a little known fact that sheep are very intelligent. Although there are many different breeds, the Welsh version is probably the cleverest. I kid you not. (that's an unintended Goat pun there)

In terms of culture etc., you can split Wales, and its sheep, into the North and South variety.

In the north, they have proper mountain ranges. E.G. Snowdonia. In the south we have "mountains". When you consider that we call a small hump in a field a hill, you can imagine what we call mountains.

I digress.

Based on the above terrain, our sheep have evolved differently, but very, very ingeniously. I will tell you about the southern sheep as they are the ones I know best. (not in a biblical way tho)

Thousands of years ago, before the invasion of Anglo Saxons and Romans, sheep were happy grazing on the flatlands of the Vale of Glamorgan and other such places. Due to the ever-expanding population of our fair country the sheep were pushed up to the hilly places where man was less prevalent. Trouble was, sheep weren't much good on the slopes. If they pointed directly down the hill, all the blood would rush to their heads causing them to pass out. If they pointed directly up the hill men of questionable sexual preference would creep up on them and have their wicked way.
To combat this the sheep, en mass, decided that the desired stance was across the slope, thus canceling out the previous risks.

This brought a further problem: Standing sideways meant that they were leaning slightly and, in high winds, they would fall over.

Mother nature took over and sheep, through natural evolution, developed shorter legs on one side of their body; some left-handed, some right. You may think I'm kidding (another goat pun) but this has been scientifically proved. Although early scientists thought that the sheep just dug holes to put their legs in, work by the Welsh Naturalist, David David (or Dai twice as he was known), made them a laughing stock. "It was simple", he said, "how can sheep dig holes?, they can't hold a shovel!" subsequent measuring of the sheep has indeed shown that the legs are different lengths.

The only thing I know about north Wales sheep is that, due to the extent of rainfall, they have webbed feet at the end of their differently sized legs. Of course, it goes without saying (but I will anyway), that the extent of the differing leg size is more pronounced in the north due to the steeper slope.


Here is a picture of Dai Twice measuring a sheep. This is a right-handed sheep. Note that the sheep's front left and rear left legs are bent at the knee. This is because it is standing on level ground and must compensate for the shorter right legs. You will also note that Dai's wearing a small tractor tyre on his head. This helps when the male sheep want to head-butt him when he's trying to "milk" them.