The Sheep Beside the Sea Wild


The Sheep Beside the Sea

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This is no ordinary story about a beautiful and faraway island

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tucked away in a remote part

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by the wild Atlantic Ocean.

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There are some creatures here,

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that you probably wouldn't expect to find on a far-flung rocky shore.

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and no ordinary sheep at that.

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They are one of the wildest

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and have lived on the island

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They were old before the first

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but that's not what makes them

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they were thrown out of their fields

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North Ronaldsay is the most northerly of the Orkney Islands

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are an unspoiled grassy paradise.

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with plenty of time to rest

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when everything will change.

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They are in for a big shock.

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Although it might all look lovely for these little lambs now,

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they are no ordinary breed,

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is a rather curious old wall

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which more or less completely encircles the whole island.

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the sheep out rather than in.

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stay in the green fields for long.

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Soon they too will be banished

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of their kind in the world.

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Instead of starving, they've taken

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of the little lambs' destiny.

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The newborn lambs and their mothers

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are allowed to spend spring

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The grass helps the nursing mothers

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A charmed existence with beautiful,

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from thousands of miles away.

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By the time the terns migrate south

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the lambs' lives will change

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Starlings are rearing families

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they don't seem very interested

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their flying skills round the wall,

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practice flights turn into races.

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They are rounded up from the beach

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to be counted and checked out.

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Although they live pretty much

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By now, you might be wondering

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why the sheep are kept shut out

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Why was a wall built which forces them to live out on the beach?

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the laird of the island decided

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to be made from rearing cattle

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while the little native sheep were banished to the beach.

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who'd survived for millennia.

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They became one of only a handful of animals in the whole world

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so the sheep evolved and have become very efficient at extracting it.

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of banishment, their unusual diet

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has fundamentally reshaped the way

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They can now die if given grass

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must make them very thirsty.

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Luckily, there are a few springs

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close enough to the island's shore to keep the sheep in drinking water.

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Instead of grazing in the day

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and chewing the cud at night

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the island breed have adapted to the rhythm of the tides.

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They are an amazing example

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E-mail [email protected]

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