Saturday, August 28, 2010

Rambouillet Sheep (Ovis aries)

Rambouillet Sheep (Ovis aries)
I saw this Colorado State University mascot, CAM the ram, at the farmer's market in Old Town Fort Collins this morning. I actually walk past the pen where CAM lives on campus to get to most of my classes, and so I have seen this particular ram on a weekly basis for over a year.  For me the interesting thing about rams is that you can tell their age sort of like you tell the age of a tree- you count the rings on the horns.  I am not sure how many rings equals a year of age, and I think that when rams are older they don't grow in their horns every year, but I am sure there are people out there who know these things and could tell how old CAM is.  You can read more about the history of breeding this type of sheep here.

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