An intelligent form of life - well I think so!

Shrek!  What I would give for his merino fleece!

Last week saw the passing of a hero.  A hero of the wooly kind; Shrek the Merino sheep. He became famous when he evaded his shearers in New Zealand for 6 years (yes folks, 6 whole years), hiding in caves!  Eventually he was caught and his 27kg fleece was sheared live on television.  Just think of all the beautiful wooly garments you could make with that fleece.  

The sad death of such a wooly celebrity got me thinking about just how intelligent sheep are.  I mean, you only have to look at the Shaun the Sheep (star of Wallace and Grommit) and the adventures of the Electric Sheep on Hoxton Handmade's podcast, to see that sheep are really rather clever and can be found getting up to all kinds of mischief.  

Joking aside, I have seen and met many sheep in my life and have always thought them to be intelligent creatures.  Whilst on my Scottish adventure I was lucky enough to be staying opposite a whole field of sheep and woke every morning to their baas and bleats.  Many of our day's out involved driving down small country roads  where we encountered sheep.  However, these where not just any old sheep, they where most definitley Commando Sheep.  Commando Sheep is a term that me and Mr Bunny gave to a lamb we had an encounter with a few years ago in the Lake District.  It's Mum had crossed the road, it came running after her down a steep slate hill!  It could see it's life flash before it's little sheepy eyes but luckily managed to stop before plummeting over the edge.  Phew! It then acted as if nothing had happened, jumped down onto the road and ran off to it's Mum.  

The Commando Sheep we met in Scotland where not under as dramatic a circumastance as the one above.  These sheep where on a hunt for pastures new (namely the rather scrumptious looking bush across the road!)  They had cleverly escaped from the field their farmer had put them in.  The Commando Sheep could be seen adopting many military manoeveurs in a bid not to be caught and returned to their field, hiding in the bushes, diving down ditches and quickly clambering through the gap in the fence which they had escaped out of. 

You can't see me hiding in this bush!



I can't seem to fit through this gap in the gate!


So, what more evidence do you need to show you that sheep really are an intelligent animal?  But then  again, for those of us who are addicted to (yes, Mr Bunny now says that I have an addiction) to wool, we already knew that!