Rare fuzzy creatures born after their mom jumped into the wrong pen, UK farm says
Maya Angelou once said, “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
One sheep took Angelou’s words literally.
An English farm announced the surprise birth of two small, fuzzy and rare lambs — a combination of sheep breeds the farm didn’t plan.
“These delightful new additions are a new breed to the team,” Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park said in a May 30 Facebook post.
The farm said a “cheeky” female Shetland ewe jumped the fence between her pen and a neighboring pen holding a “handsome” Valais ram, named Hank.
“You only need a couple of hours for the deed to be done, so we only (realized) a couple weeks ago when she gave birth to the cutest little lambs,” farm director Sandra Palmer-Snellin told BBC.
Shetland sheep come from a region of Scotland, according to the Livestock Conservancy, and are prized for their fine wool that’s both soft and strong.
Valais blacknose sheep, by comparison, are from a region of Switzerland and were only brought to the British Isles by breeders in 2013 and 2014, according to the Valais Blacknose Sheep Society.
Palmer-Snellin told BBC that the two breeds are not typically bred together, and they were not in a breeding program at the farm.
“The Valais are quite impressive sheep, with black faces and a lovely thick fleece,” Palmer-Snellin told BBC. “The Shetland sheep are kept in a separate pen but one of the females must have been full of the joys of spring and quite determined.”
Now, the farm is asking the public to help name the new lambs and their mother.
“Please pop your suggestions to name these Shalais lambs in the comments below and we will choose our (favorite) names by Tuesday 6th June,” the farm said on Facebook.
Many chimed in to suggest names for the white and black twins, a boy and a girl.
“Cezaro and Rosetti, after the Swiss-Scottish Esperanto writer, representing the home countries of the breeds,” one person suggested.
“Tina and Turner,” another wrote.
Others played on the accidental nature of their arrival.
“Whoopsie (and) Daisy,” one person commented.
“Almark and Alkaddi (Shetland dialect for ‘pet lamb’ and ‘sheep that breaks through fences’ respectively,” another wrote.
Palmer-Stellin told BBC that while unplanned, the staff of the farm were excited by the “happy surprise” and said the lambs were doing well.
“We didn’t have any plans to put the parents together but nature found its own way and we’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how lovely the lambs are,” she said. “The ewe is a very proud mummy.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Rare fuzzy creatures born after their mom jumped into the wrong pen, UK farm says."
