Sheep and the City

sheep and cattle diagrams from my Physiology (reproduction unit) notes. I'm serious. These pictures were taken straight from my notes. Cattle are on the left, sheep are on the right.

So as promised, I am going to write up my "sheep sex" phsyiology notes so that you can all have your naivete shattered as I had in my physiology class. Actually, I spent half my class giggling with everyone else as my prof lectured. Yes yes, we're all immature idiots. But why keep all the fun to myself? I hope you all laugh as hard as I did. I can't believe I pay nearly $7000 a year to learn this stuff.

So, first thing you should know is that there are 5 stages to sheep mating. The first 4 stages are what would be referred to as "foreplay" and the last stage is how little lambs are made.

The diagram above corresponds to each stage. Here goes . . .oh, and please don't try this at home kids.

STAGE 1: "SNIFFING"
-Ewe signals she is in heat by standing still
-wiggles tail to attract ram
-may bleat to call ram over
-may squat and pee (ram puts nose in urine stream to detect hormone levels)
-ram sniffs ewe

STAGE 2: "FLEHMEN"
-ram sniffs then curls lips up around nose (also seen in horses)
-purpose: male can determine steroid hormone (estrogen) concentrations in the female via the vomeronasal organ in his nose

STAGE 3: "NUDGING AND KICKING"
-ram nudges and kicks female
-female spreads legs and looks behind at male
-more bleating and tail wiggling (cattle may divert their tail)

STAGE 4: "MOUNTING"
-self-explanatory
-some females show homosexual behaviour and mount each other to signal to males they are in heat

STAGE 5: "COPULATION"
-self-explanatory



Well, I hope you all aren't too traumatised and saw some humour in it. Kind of changes your perception of sheep doesn't it? Those kinky bastards.