Soay Sheep: What is the difference between American and British Soay sheep?

What is the difference between American and British Soay sheep?

American Soay sheep and British Soay sheep are more similar than they are different. Both originate from breeders in the UK, who secured their original stock from Hirta at various times in the 19th and 20th centuries. Soay sheep are ancient sheep and are considered to be ancesters of the Northern European shorttailed breeds of sheep. There may be no "purebred" Soay sheep anywhere; Soay sheep on the islands of Hirta and Soay have been crossbred in decades and centuries past.1

Registered British Soay sheep found in North America are descended from the 1990 importation into Canada. Because this flock stayed on one farm in the care of one breeder for 10 years, the records he kept enabled one of the US importers to procure registrations retroactively with Rare Breeds Survival Trust in 2000. The 1990 import into Canada consisted of 4 ewes and 2 rams. Three of the ewes were horned, and there was just one daughter from the polled ewe (Lily), but that daughter (Opal) was horned. Opal in turn had just one daughter, and she was also horned. For all intents and purposes, the British Soay population in the US and Canada descends from a tiny gene pool of 3 horned ewes and 2 rams, and their phenotype reflects the crossbreeding that occurred on Hirta in the 1930s. British Soay sheep are reciprocal (share the same phenotype) with the Soay sheep on the mainland UK, but not with the sheep of Hirta or Soay.

American Soay sheep have been in North America since 1970, give or take a year, when they were purchased as a gift to a zoo in Canada. Less is known about this importation, and SOA does not yet know the number of sheep that were imported at that time or the source of the sheep imported. Once the progeny of these sheep were dispersed from this zoo about a decade later, they were sold to a variety of people across Canada and the US. One flock died, and many just disappeared. SOA is working to locate those flocks that disappeared. One breeder on the West Coast crossed the few Soay sheep he had with Barbados and Mouflon, and then bred back the resulting progeny to Soay, and bred those progeny back to Soay, repeating this process until the resulting sheep were representative of the wide variety of Soay sheep found on Soay and Hirta in the archipelago of St Kilda. Because there were few records kept, and because crossing was known to have happened in the early years, these sheep were not eligible for registry with Rare Breeds Survival Trust. American Soay sheep are more widely varied, and their phenotypes represent those found on Hirta, but were in danger of extinction due to the new interest in the British registered sheep. For this reason, Soays of America, Inc. was formed.

So, aside from registerability with RBST, what ARE the differences between American and British Soay sheep? Just a few... All of the British Soay ewes on this continent are horned, which is largely due to the preference for a particular phenotype over the last 100 years or so in the UK; which was for dark fleeces and horned ewes. American Soays were not selected for one particular appearance, and still retain the ability to produce polled and scurred ewes. Since 65% of the ewes on Hirta are polled or scurred, and because this trait is directly related to greater hardiness and winter survivability, this fact is very important for breeders and buyers to be aware of!

Whether you choose American or British Soay sheep is a personal matter that only you can decide. Both are worthy of conservation. While SOA was originally organized to preserve the American Soay sheep (Bylaw 2.1), Soays of America Inc. is inclusive to British Soay sheep and is the only Association that registers, monitors and encourages conservation of both British and American Soay sheep.

References:

Island Survivors, The Ecology of the Soay Sheep of St Kilda, Edited by P. A. Jewell, C. Milner and J. Morton Boyd, with a Foreword by Sir Frank Fraser Darling. Published 1974 by The Athlone Press, University of London

Soay Sheep, Dynamics and Selection in an Island Population, Edited by Tim Clutton-Brock and Josephine Pemberton. Published 2004 by Cambridge University Press

Winter 2004 issue of The Ark, The Journal of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Black Sheep of Windermere, A History of the St Kilda or Hebridean Sheep, by Dr. David J. J. Kinsman. Published 2001 by Windy Hall Publications.

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