How Do Sheep
When city folk look at a flock of sheep and goats grazing in a pasture, they are sometimes confused as to which animals are goats and which animals are sheep. How can the shepherd know the difference when they all look so much alike?
The Parable that Jesus gave in Matthew 25 about separating the sheep from the goats was better understood by the disciples of the first century, than the disciples of our modern day. To understand what they understood, we need to understand sheep and goats.
Generally speaking, goats have hair and sheep have fleece, except Barbado sheep have hair, but no goat has fleece. (Yes, that even sounds confusing.) Some goat hair becomes cashmere yarn and some goat hair becomes angora yarn--both are made into fine garments. Goatskin is a favorite for gloves and sheepskin is a favorite for seat covers and chamois towels. The fine wool from sheep is used for garments and the more coarse wool is used for blankets and rugs.
Most goats, male and female, have horns and some of them have beards. Most sheep do not have horns or beards, but if the beard of a goat is cut off it just might look like a sheep. Another clue, as to who is who, is that goat horns are pointed and large; ram horns are curled by the sides of their head. Goat tails go up and sheep tails hang down. A group of sheep is called a herd of sheep. A group of goats is called a tribe of goats, but if the two are combined then they are called a herd of sheep and goats.
Sheep are grazers--they eat grass, clover and weeds all the way down to the ground. Nothing is left if they remain in one spot for too long. As Psalm 23 states, sheep like to lie down in green pastures and be near still waters. They don't like the noise of waterfalls or freeways. Sheep are easily startled by noise.
Goats are browsers--they will nibble at a variety of plants including trees, shrubs and vines, even standing on their hind legs to reach the highest twig. They are not content with any one spot. Neither goats nor sheep have top front teeth and both chew their cud and have cloven hooves making them Biblically clean animals.
Female goats are called "nannies" and male goats are called "billies". Female sheep are "ewes"; male sheep are "rams". A neutered billy or ram is called a "wether". Father goats and father sheep are called "sires". Both goats and sheep have an average life expectancy of about 7 years, some more and some less.
Goats will leave their kids (the name for baby goats) in groups with other kids while they go off to dine on
whatever catches their eye. Sheep will keep their lambs (baby sheep) at their side. In other words, "kids" spend lots of time with their peers and "lambs"have the over-protective moms.
Sheep and goats make similar sounds but actually sound different to a trained ear. Sheep say "Baaaa" and goats say "Maaaa". If a lamb is orphaned and bottle-fed and then raised with goats, the lamb will sound more like a goat than a sheep, but the reverse seldom happens when kids are raised with sheep. Different breeds of goats and sheep will have slightly different vocal sounds and pitch but the shepherd knows the difference because he watches them.
With sheep and goats usually occupying the same pasture, there isn't a goat-sheep hybrid animal because they have different chromosomes. They might look and sound the same but inside they are totally different animals. Sheep are of the genus Ovis with 54 chromosomes and goats are of the genus Capra with 60 chromosomes. From time-to-time there are cross-breeding circumstances but the mismatch of chromosomes results in stillbirth further indicating their genetic incompatibly.
In Gen 30: 37-41 is an account of Jacob breeding Laban's flocks and cattle using colored rods. Did the colored rods make the flocks and cattle produce spotted and speckled offspring? No, it was a blessing from God to Jacob. The key to this dilemma is verse 42. When the cattle were feeble, "he (Jacob) put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's".
The colored rods evidently formed breeding pens for the stronger animals and probably was more symbolic of Jacob's trust in God to provide the spotted and speckled increase. It also may have been a bit of jest toward Laban because Laban was into pagan statue worship (Gen 31: 19-32). If Laban and his sons were all talking (and laughing?) about the colored rods then they might not notice that Jacob was sorting out the feeble animals from the strong animals.
Some people say sheep are dumb and goats are smart but that's not really true. They are just different animals with different temperaments. Goats are inquisitive, stubborn, quirky and apt to suddenly change from nice to nasty. Goats are hard to contain because they will go over the fence, under the fence, or just remove the fence. It's been said the biggest expense in keeping a goat is the money for the fence to keep them where they belong.
An intelligence experiment was done at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England on sheep. It was documented that sheep can remember the faces of other sheep and the faces of humans--up to 50 different faces. Sheep have a remarkable memory system for visual recognition that can last about two years. Sheep can also recognize emotion. They preferred smiling faces to angry faces. Sheep also have tear ducts.
When faced with danger, billy goats will rear up on their hind legs to appear bigger and more dangerous, then come down to "butt heads". In contrast, rams will back up as if retreating, and then charge to "butt heads". When two people can't agree on a matter we use the phrase that they are "butting heads". When goats are butting heads they are establishing their place in goat society. The dominant billy is the breeding goat but when breeding season is over the billy becomes docile and the nanny who has the most kids takes over the lead and is referred to as "the queen" by the shepherds. There isn't much of a social structure in a herd of sheep as sheep view the shepherd as in control. Wild sheep will rely on the biggest ram or sire for protection.
When faced with a predator, sheep will huddle together and flee as a group. If given a choice, sheep will flee from a pasture to higher ground. They will fight back only if they have to. Sheep prefer to avoid confrontation. Rams have been known to butt wolves off cliffs but their best defense is sticking together as a flock. A sheep on its own is vulnerable to wolves, wild dogs, lions, etc. Their safety is in togetherness.
Sheep usually seem aloof to strangers but if a sheep is separated from it's flock, the sheep becomes very agitated, vocal and distressed. Sheep are prey animals and as such must disguise pain and discomfort to survive. If a sheep is in obvious pain, it most likely has been suffering in silence for a long time. As we all know, Christ was the Lamb of God; He suffered intense pain but didn't cry out until the pain became unbearable. (Matt 27: 46, 50)
Sheep are very hardy animals compared to goats. Sheep can survive in cold or dry climates. Sheep don't mind rain but will look for shade when it's hot. Most goats will head for cover to avoid rain and heat. Both lambs and kids are fragile and need enclosures in bad weather.
Some other differences are that goats have solid upper lips, sheep have divided upper lips. Sheep milk is higher in fat than goat milk. Both kinds of milk can be used to make cheese. Sheep are seldom plagued with external parasites but it's a rare goat that does not have lice or that strong goat smell.
Sheep will come quickly when they hear the shepherd's voice. Goats will come when they want to or if they want food. Even though a flock of sheep and goats can look similar, the shepherd knows the difference--he watches them. The shepherd knows their feeding habits, their personalities and the sounds of their voices.
In Exodus 12:1-6 the Israelites were to take a yearling "from the sheep or from the goats." Both sheep and goats are considered adults at 6 months of age but are not allowed to breed until around 18 months of age when they are then referred to as sheep or goats. A male lamb or kid of the first year could have been a newborn lamb or kid, or even a fairly good-sized animal because these animals are bred in the fall and born in the spring.
A lamb separated from the flock will be highly distressed because of separation as stated above. A kid will also be highly distressed because of being denied the freedom of movement. It must have been quite stressful for everyone in Goshen with thousands of distressed lambs and kids bleating from the 10th to the 14th as they prepared for the first Passover. The distress cries of the animals must have been well understood by the nation of slaves who had been crying out to God for many years for deliverance.
As David cared for his father's sheep, it's obvious from the behavior of those sheep and goats that David received an incredible education into human nature. That understanding of human nature helped him when he became king. We can develop some of that same character insight, as well, if we study the behavior of animals.