Scientists solve mystery of Scotland's shrinking sheep
Shorter, milder winters caused by global warming to blame for steady decrease in size of St Kilda sheep, experts say The mysterious shrinking sheep of St Kilda sounds like a job for super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes. The case involves a rare herd of wild sheep on the remote Scottish island - known in Scottish Gaelic as Hirta - that are refusing to bow to conventional evolutionary pressure, which says big is best. Instead, they have steadily decreased in size since the 1980s. Scientists have now stepped in to solve the conundrum, and fingered the culprit as the new Moriarty of mankind: global warming. The experts say shorter and milder winters mean that lambs do not need to put as much weight on during their first few months of life. Smaller animals that would have perished in harsh winters a few decades ago can now survive to their first...
Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science
More from The Guardian - Science
Related
- Sheep shrink on Scottish isle as world warms, says Stanford biologistMon, 6 Jul 2009, 9:57:01 EDT
- Climate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheepThu, 2 Jul 2009, 14:31:37 EDT
- Climate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheepThu, 2 Jul 2009, 14:31:49 EDT
- Old sheep raising the baaaFri, 5 Sep 2008, 13:50:31 EDT
- Research says singling out sheep will save 1.3 million from lamenessTue, 14 Oct 2008, 10:49:43 EDT