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Sheep grazing on the south lawn of the White House, c. 1918. No ovine species native to the Americas has ever been domesticated, despite being closer genetically to domestic sheep than many Asian and European species. The first domestic sheep in North America—most likely of the Churra breed—arrived with Christopher Columbus' second voyage ...
Domesticated sheep are herd animals that are bred for agricultural trade. A flock of sheep is mated by a single ram, which has either been chosen by a farmer or, in feral populations, has established dominance through physical contests with other rams. [1] Sheep have a breeding season (tupping) in the autumn, though some can breed year-round. [1]
The domestication of animals commenced over 15,000 years before present (YBP), beginning with the grey wolf (Canis lupus) by nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not until 11,000 YBP that people living in the Near East entered into relationships with wild populations of aurochs, boar, sheep, and goats. A domestication process then began to develop.
The exact line of descent from wild ancestors to domestic sheep is unclear. [2] The most common hypothesis states that Ovis aries is descended from the Asiatic (O. gmelini) species of mouflon; the European mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) is a direct descendant of this population. [3]
Sheep farming in Namibia (2017). According to the FAOSTAT database of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the top five countries by number of head of sheep (average from 1993 to 2013) were: mainland China (146.5 million head), Australia (101.1 million), India (62.1 million), Iran (51.7 million), and the former Sudan (46.2 million). [2]
A Gulf Coast Native sheep in Florida. The Gulf Coast Native is a breed of sheep found in the U.S. states bordering the Gulf Coast.Also occasionally known as the Louisiana Scrub, Pineywoods Native or simply Gulf Coast sheep, the breed is a mix of many of the sheep varieties brought to the Southern United States during the European colonization of the region.
Domestication is a gradual process, so there is no precise moment in the history of a given species when it can be considered to have become fully domesticated. Zooarchaeology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, hamsters, etc.) Livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)
Domestication (not to be confused with the taming of an individual animal [3] [4] [5]), is from the Latin domesticus, 'belonging to the house'. [6] The term remained loosely defined until the 21st century, when the American archaeologist Melinda A. Zeder defined it as a long-term relationship in which humans take over control and care of another organism to gain a predictable supply of a ...