Merino Male Sheep
Shrek 27 november 1994 6 june 2011 was a merino wether castrated male sheep belonging to bendigo station a sheep station near tarras new zealand who gained international fame in 2004 after he avoided being caught and shorn for six years.
Merino male sheep. Merino sheep are medium sized animals with very beautiful appearance. She was a merino. Mature ewes with full fleece average from 125 to 180 pounds.
The maremmano has a solid muscular build a thick white coat a large head and a black nose. Greater size can be achieved but is not sought after because it often leads to the production of rangy long legged individual with harsh coarse short fibered wool. Having been around and prized for its extremely fine wool for centuries the merino sheep is a founding breed for many of the modern breeds found all around the world today.
A wool breed for example can include the merino and rambouillet while the meat breeds can include the cheviot southdown and dorse. According to the guiness book of world records the oldest sheep lived to be 23. Merinos vary considerably in size conformation and extent of skin folds but the prevailing trend in breeding is to develop sheep of medium size with fair mutton conformation and a minimum of skin folds.
The merino is a breed of fine wool sheep originating in spain. Plus this fiber has evolved over the years to keep sheep comfortable in harsh environments. They can be either polled or horned.
Merinos are normally shorn annually but shrek apparently hid in caves avoiding musterhe was named after the fictional ogre in books and films. Delaine merino is of medium size. These happy animals hang out in temperatures that range from 5 degrees to 95 degreesno problem.
And the horned version has long and spiral horns which grow close to the head. It was known as early as the 12th century. Wool meat dual purpose and triple purpose breeds.
It was particularly well adapted to semiarid climates and to nomadic pasturing. The life expectancy of sheep is similar to large breeds of dogs about 10 to 12 years. Its a pretty amazing fiber.
Some dogs may be considerably larger. According to the breed standard males should weigh 3545 kg and stand 6573 cm at the shoulder while females weigh 3040 kg and stand 6068 cm. Merinos vary considerably in size conformation and extent of skin folds but the prevailing trend in breeding is to develop sheep of medium size with fair mutton conformation and a minimum of skin folds.
Some breeds are known for being longer lived eg. Rams are larger ranging in weight from 175 to 235 pounds. The polled version has no horns or has a very small stubs known as scurs.
Merino wool is a natural renewable fibermeaning one sheep can grow four to five pounds of wool per year. However the length of a sheeps productive lifetime tends to be much less.