Ovis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article refers to the sheep genus. For the species commonly referred to simply as "sheep", see Domestic sheep.

iSheep

Bighorn Sheep

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Caprinae
Genus:	Ovis Linnaeus, 1758

Species

See text.

A sheep is an individual of any of the eight woolly mammal species that comprise the genus Ovis, part of the goat antelope subfamily. All the sheep are bovids (members of the family Bovidae) and ruminants, meaning they chew cud. The domestic sheep is thought to be descended from the wild moufflon of central and southwest Asia. Members of the genus are highly gregarious.

Female sheep are called ewes, males are called rams (sometimes also called "bucks" or "tups") and young sheep are called lambs. The adjective applying to sheep is ovine and the collective terms for sheep are flock and mob. The term herd is also occasionally used in this sense.

Sheep are usually stockier than other bovines and some have horns which are more divergent than those of goats. Sheep have scent glands on the face and hind feet. Communication through the scent glands is not well understood but is thought to be important for sexual signaling. Males can smell females which are fertile and ready to mate, and rams mark their territories by rubbing scent on to rocks. They have a four-chambered stomach which plays a vital role in digesting, regurgitating, and redigesting food. Domestic sheep are important for their wool, milk, and meat (which is called mutton or lamb).

The most populous species of sheep is the domestic sheep, the largest populations of which are found in China and Australia.

[edit] Sheep species

There are at least eight species of sheep:

Image:Ovis orientalis aries 'Skudde' (aka).jpg	O. aries	Domestic sheep
Image:Ovis canadensis 2.jpg	O. canadensis	Bighorn sheep
	O. dalli	Dall Sheep
Image:Mouflon, Ovis musimon Pengo.jpg	O. musimon, or O. ammon musimon	European Mouflon
	O. nivicola	Snow sheep
	O. orientalis	Asiatic Mouflon
	O. vignei	Urial
	O. ammon	Argali