December 14, 2007
City Gal Turns Little Bo-Beep
What happens when a quintessential city gal tries her hand at being Little Bo-Beep? Nothing very much, except she gets bored after having to watch them graze for three hours every day and making sure they don't go beyond the ditch that separates them from the dangers of the road just ahead. She also gets out of breath after having to run around chasing and herding sheep to make sure they're going in the direction she wants them to.
Like an animal behaviourist, she also begins to gather observations from watching sheep. Here's a summary of her report:
1) Tending and herding sheep can be rather tiring work when you are new to it - you end up having to run around quite a bit.
2) It is rather boring, so perhaps take a book to read. Just make sure you keep glancing up once in a while to make sure none of the sheep have gone stray. Or just take the time to reflect and muse on life while admiring the scenery around. But really, there's only so much one can muse on.
3) The true meaning and origin of 'herd instinct' becomes very apparent. One sheep moves and the rest follow. It really sucks when they do not move in the direction you want to – then you’ll have to start chasing them back, e.g. the sheep going through the bushes.
4) You have to stand at the back of the flock and then herd them in the direction you want them to go. If you want them to go in the opposite direction they are facing, then in front of them and back them up. They’ll turn away from you.
5) The older lambs tend to form a group of their own after awhile and they graze together. It’s so cute…they’re like a youth group! They are about a month old and old enough to eat grass. They play with each other by headbutting each other. It's really adorable. Occasionally they look for their mother and suckle at her udder. In the photo below, four of the lambs were grazing together. Then one of them, in the background, went to look for its mother to get some milk.
6) The lambs that are a few days old follow their mother around because they can only feed on milk. They’re too young to eat grass. The lambs and their mother locate each other by their bleep. Somehow they’re able to distinguish. It’s very amazing when you see a lamb calling out to its mother and you see the mother going towards it and vice versa.
7) Once a lamb kept following a female sheep around because it had lost its mum for awhile and it wanted some milk. The female sheep’s actual lamb was there too. The lost lamb tried to suckle but got pushed away by the female sheep. Interesting how they know that’s not their child.
8) When grazing, the lambs get tired more easily so they often sit down on the grass. They look like little balls of white cotton in the green patch. The adults never sit. They just have their heads down all the time and are eating away at the grass like lawnmowers. In the photo below, you can see the lambs in the foreground and the adults in the background.
