Buzz
For many, the sight of sheep jumping through the minds of insomniacs is a dull thought. Yet, these creatures are far more than simple farm animals destined for mutton. Sheep play a crucial role in groundbreaking technology and have uncovered valuable insights into a mysterious and devastating autoimmune disease.
Beyond research, tales about sheep often take strange turns. There’s the story of their sacrifice in Auschwitz, their surprising enrollment in a French school, and the dramatic cliff rescue that had the RSPCA raising eyebrows.
10. The Pit Hybrids
Around 400 BC, a group from the Iron Age settled in southern England. In 2015, archaeologists uncovered the remnants of their homes and several pits. In the absence of refrigerators, the villagers cleverly dug holes into the chalky soil to preserve their food, keeping it cool.
These primitive “fridges” seemed to have lasted about a year before being ritually sealed. The decommissioning process often involved a sacrifice, typically whole animals such as dogs and pigs. Some were more unusual, like a six-legged sheep and another with a cow’s skull attached to its rear.
In addition to the sheep-cow hybrids, there were horse-cow creatures and a woman. Cut marks on her shoulder suggested her throat had been slit. This was not merely a burial, as people of this era did not bury their dead. Moreover, her body, placed face down, mirrored the positioning of the animals around her, implying she too was part of the ritual sacrifice.
9. Methuselina
As recorded by Guinness World Records, the longest-living sheep ever was 28 years and 51 weeks old. Throughout her lifetime, she gave birth to 40 lambs, but she passed away in Wales in 1989.
Next in line was Lucky, an Australian ewe with a Polwarth-Dorchester mix. After she passed away in 2009 at 23 years of age, Guinness World Records began searching for a new record-holder. That title went to a sheep named Methuselina, who lived on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, off the coast of Scotland.
Methuselina, a blackface sheep, had her age recorded on her ear tag. She passed away in 2012 at the age of 25 years and 11 months. However, she was never officially recognized as the world’s oldest sheep because her owner did not apply for the record with the organization.
Tragically, Methuselina’s death wasn’t of natural causes—she fell off a cliff. Had she lived longer, she could have easily outlived her years.
8. The Auschwitz Demonstration
Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp during World War II (1939–1945), was located in southern Poland. Over a million people lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis, targeted as ‘undesirables.’ Victims included Jews, Poles, Romas, prisoners of war, and others. Today, the site serves as a museum.
In 2017, a group chose Auschwitz as the setting for a controversial demonstration. Nude and chained to the iconic entrance gate, they completed their offensive act, which began with fireworks in the parking lot and a massive banner that read “love” draped across the gate.
The 12 protestors, however, failed to reflect the spirit of their own banner. In broad daylight, they slaughtered a sheep and captured the entire act with a drone. Museum guards ultimately removed the protestors from the gate and arrested them.
In 2018, the group faced legal consequences for desecrating the site. Their attempt to justify the protest as an opposition to the war in Ukraine didn’t provide enough defense. Two protestors were sentenced to a year in prison, while the rest were fined.
7. The Wales Rescue
In 2019, a ewe fell off a cliff in Wales. Although unscathed, the sheep became trapped on the rocks below. A Canadian tourist visiting the Pembrokeshire cove spotted the stranded animal and decided to attempt a rescue. Andrea Williams, a passerby, captured the moment on camera as she witnessed the unfolding scene.
The RSPCA, however, was critical of the Canadian’s actions, calling it a “dangerous stunt.” The Coastguard shared this sentiment, urging people to rely on trained professionals for such rescues in the future.
Williams’s husband, a retired police officer, believed that the man had taken minimal risk. The Canadian climbed cautiously, and if he had fallen into the sea, the water was only about 3 meters (10 ft) deep.
6. They Go To School
In 2019, French parents were alarmed when they learned that a local school class might be shut down due to a small decrease in enrollment. While understandable, the drop was minor—just five students, from 266 to 261. Still, the national education authority thought it best to close the class.
The primary school, situated in the French Alps, catered to the village of Crets en Belledonne. One of the village farmers had an unconventional solution. He brought his flock of sheep to the school with a plan in mind.
Upon arriving, the farmer presented birth certificates for 15 of his sheep and officially enrolled them as students. In most places, this might have led to a legal issue, a police report, or even a call to animal welfare services—or perhaps a visit from a psychiatrist.
Yet, in this case, the woolly students were registered in a ceremony attended by the school staff, children, and their parents. Although the sheep never participated in history lessons or received homework, the plan succeeded. The class remained open.
5. The Dolly Clones
Dolly the sheep, born on July 5, 1996, made history as the first mammal ever cloned. However, her health issues were apparent from the start. By the time she was a year old, her DNA showed signs of premature aging. At five, she was already limping with arthritis, and just a year later, a virus took her life. Dolly’s life span of six years was about half of what was typical for her breed.
As time passed, Dolly became a symbol of the potential drawbacks of cloning. To investigate these concerns, the University of Nottingham cloned 10 lambs using the same method that produced Dolly. Born in 2007, only four of these clones survived in the long term.
For comparison, these four “Nottingham Dollies” were raised alongside other sheep, including non-cloned sheep and additional clones. The group led a quiet life, and nine years later, scientists reported that the surviving Dolly clones appeared to be aging healthily for their age.
Only one of the clones showed moderate arthritis. It appears that cloning does not speed up the aging process, as their cardiovascular health, joint condition, and metabolism were comparable to that of other sheep of the same age—nine years old.
4. World’s Oldest Sperm
In 1968, the University of Sydney preserved the sperm of prized merino rams by freezing it. Stored in liquid nitrogen for five decades, this sperm was heralded as the world’s oldest. Scientists were intrigued to see how time had affected its quality.
Upon thawing, the sperm appeared as vigorous as samples that had been frozen for only a year. To assess its fertility, 56 ewes were artificially inseminated. Of those, 34 became pregnant, giving a pregnancy rate of 61%, which was higher than the 59% average typically observed from sperm stored for just 12 months.
The lambs born from this sperm were healthy, although they were slightly more wrinkled than usual merino lambs. This feature was inherited from their sires, who lived in an era when merino sheep were bred for more skin folds—more skin meant more wool.
The wrinkles were eventually bred out of the sheep due to the complications they caused, such as making shearing difficult and contributing to pest issues. However, having lambs with traits that had previously disappeared was a positive development for modern geneticists. Additionally, the successful births showed that sperm from endangered species—and from men who have undergone cancer treatments that affect fertility—could be preserved for decades.
3. Artificially Born Lambs
In the United States, the leading cause of infant mortality is extremely premature births, which occur before the 26th week of pregnancy. In 2017, scientists tested an artificial womb to help save these early infants. Eight lambs, also born prematurely after only 100–115 days of a normal 152-day pregnancy, were selected as test subjects.
For human babies, the lambs' lung development was comparable to an infant born at 22–24 weeks of pregnancy. Babies at this stage often suffer from chronic lung problems for the rest of their lives. The goal was to keep the lambs alive long enough to ensure healthy organ development.
After the lambs were placed in the artificial womb, they existed in a liquid environment similar to amniotic fluid, receiving nutrient-rich blood. Some of the lambs lived for up to 28 days, opening their eyes and developing normal organ function. Although most of the lambs were euthanized for research purposes, two of them are still alive and living on a farm.
The artificial womb proved effective, but further years of testing are required before it can be used for human babies.
2. The Multiple Sclerosis Link
Multiple sclerosis (MS) disrupts the communication between the spinal cord and brain, often resulting in severe symptoms. Despite ongoing research, doctors are still uncertain about its causes, and there is no cure.
Previous research has already shown that individuals with MS tend to have higher levels of antibodies against a toxin called epsilon. In 2018, the University of Exeter conducted a study to further investigate this. The team analyzed 250 volunteers, half of whom were diagnosed with MS, and once again found a significant difference in toxin levels between the two groups.
Approximately 43 percent of MS patients had antibodies against epsilon, compared to just 16 percent in the healthy group. Interestingly, this toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens.
These bacteria mostly reside in the intestines of sheep. Data also indicates that the rate of MS tends to be higher in regions with larger sheep populations. However, this doesn’t mean that petting a lamb will cause multiple sclerosis.
What researchers can definitively confirm is that a correlation exists between this toxin and MS. If further proven, this link could lead to the development of a vaccine aimed at preventing or curing the early stages of MS.
1. The Blood Vessel Experiment
Children with specific heart defects sometimes require replacement of their blood vessels, especially those connecting the heart to the lungs. Unfortunately, the materials used for these replacement vessels don't grow as the child does, resulting in the need for up to seven surgeries to replace smaller vessels with larger ones.
In 2016, a new technique was tested on five-week-old lambs. The researchers replaced the lambs' heart-to-lung blood vessels with vessels grown in a tube. The graft started as sheepskin cells, which gradually transformed into a sheet. Eventually, the cells were washed out, leaving behind a protein-based structure that was then implanted into each lamb.
The first breakthrough came when the lambs' immune systems accepted the transplants. The best part was that the blood vessels grew along with the lambs. By the time the lambs turned one, the vessels were functioning almost like regular adult arteries. Once perfected for human use, this technique could reduce the number of surgeries for children to just one.
