This is what I’m here for
No matter the species……. mama is Comfy
Is it just me or does that look like a goat kid? In which case that ewe is not mama… But that would also be totally on brand for goats
Aren’t… aren’t sheep and goats basically the same thing, only one has more stubbornness and the other has more hair? I mean you’re a vet so please don’t think I’m trying to tell you your business, but if you took a baby goat and a baby sheep and asked me to tell the difference, I’d feel deeply insecure about any answer that I gave.
@pharmdup I’m glad you asked! Here’s a crash course:
This is a lamb. Look at how soft and sweet it is. Lambs have short, round faces and curly wool. They are round at all their edges. This animal is light and warmth incarnate. It will frolic sweetly in a paddock of daffodils, and feel bad if it hurts you. All a lamb wants is their mum, because they are fragile children.
This is a goat kid. They typically have a straighter hair coat and more angular bodies. They have more angles because angles are necessary for mischief, the prime occupation of any goat. Its cuteness is not a reflection of its sweet and pure soul, unlike the lamb. This animal uses cuteness as a disguise! You will let your guard down and then it will smack you with its little hard head, eat everything you own, and spread vicious rumors that destroy your career. All a kid wants is forbidden knowledge and crime.
(All joking aside, I think the baby in the original picture looks like a goat kid because it seems to have quite a straight hair coat, not curly wool, and because it has such an angular face and long ears. Lambs never really have an angular face, you just wake up one day and they’ve gone from little cartoon faces to long sheep faces) (All this said I could still be wrong)
Sheep and Goats are actually not all that closely related, either! Their lineages split about 4 million years ago. There are very few proven ‘geeps’ in the world- most were either actually goats, or actually sheep. Of those that were true hybrids, the vast, vast majority are stillborn. The couple that are proven hybrids and have survived were sterile.
You see, sheep have 54 chromosomes, but goats have 60. When you have significant chromosome imbalances like that, things typically don’t develop that well.
