Recently YouTube recommended a video of a sheep doing tricks. It was most impressive. It was also something I had never thought about. How intelligent is a sheep? In this video, the sheep was taught to do all kinds of tricks for a tasty treat. It became apparent that the sheep liked the trainer and kept looking up at him – and then it was to the point where he pointed and the sheep just did…what the trainer seemed to ask.. from jumping in a box to jumping over obstacles and walking through a tunnel. That got me thinking. We use sheep for all kinds of things. Wool and tasty lamb dishes. Consider…
1) from a study done by a veterinary group in 2001 – By presenting sheep with images of 25 pairs of sheep faces and teaching them to associate one of each pair with a food reward, they trained them to recognize individual faces. Then, by measuring activity in regions of the sheep’s brain associated with visual recognition, they found that sheep can remember up to 50 sheep faces, even in profile for up to two years! Some of us humans would have a problem with that.
2) A Welsh farmer stated: “When you think that when sheep wander off sometimes they go back to where they came from – the flock they came from, ” he said.
3) As prey animals, they have a highly developed flocking instinct and prefer to move in groups rather than as individuals. That certainly seems intelligent
4) Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire Moors (Great Britain) taught themselves to roll 8 feet (3 meters) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids to raid villagers’ valley gardens.
5) Researchers say, “Sheep form individual friendships with one another, which may last for a few weeks. They may think about a face even when it’s not there.” The researchers also found female sheep had a definite opinion about what made a ram’s face attractive
6) Using a maze, researchers have concluded that sheep have excellent spatial memory and can learn and improve their performance. And they can retain this information for six weeks.
7) New research is suggesting that sick sheep could be smart enough to cure themselves. Australian researchers believe that sick sheep may seek out plants that make them feel better. There has been previous evidence to suggest that animals can detect what nutrients they are deficient in and can develop knowledge about which foods are beneficial or toxic.
The point is of course that the sheep is another one of God’s creatures, put here for a purpose and that is not necessarily to just be thought of as food for our table. Sheep are intelligent creatures and have a place in the chain of life.
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