An Irish Sheep with colors on its back.
Ireland is full of 3 things: Pubs, Churches, and Sheep. In 2009 I visited southern Ireland for a few weeks. One thing I thought was out of the ordinary was the different colors on the sheep. Some markings are to help determine the owner of the sheep, as sometimes sheep from multiple farms are kept on the same land together.
But other color markings are during the breeding season. The male sheep, a ram, has a harness installed near his neck that contains an animal friendly dye. When he mounts the female sheep (an ewe) he adds the dye to her back. The male’s dye can be changed out for a different color after some time has passed, and this helps to identify if an ewe is going to have multiple lambs, and when to expect the babies (early or later in the season.)
And from what I could tell, the sheep in Ireland were very frisky as most of the sheep had multiple colors on them!
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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