Not so dumb . . .

Most people think sheep are stupid – after all they have had a bad press over the years. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm sheep represent the ignorant and uneducated, unable to grasp the subtleties of revolutionary ideology. ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ they bleat.

But I’d like attempt to prove otherwise. One of our flock, the matriarch in fact, has learned how to push open a gate – and push off the lid of the bin where we keep sacks of sheep feed. And along with the rest of the flock she also recognises people who come to visit them regularly – but doesn’t come near strangers.

Don’t believe me?

In Australia researchers have been testing the intelligence and learning abilities of sheep by sending animals through a maze, similar to those used to test rats. The sheep displayed outstanding spatial memories and the ability to learn from experience.

When the maze was populated with photographs of familiar and unfamiliar sheep faces, 80 per cent of the sheep stuck to a route through the complex maze where they found images of familiar sheep. Apparently, when shown images of familiar faces, their ovine brains process visual images in the same way as we do when viewing our own photographs of friends and relatives.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge have discovered that sheep can identify human faces and remember them for at least two years.

One the researchers, neuroscientist Keith Kendrick, Gresham professor of physics at Cambridge University, said: "We now have a fair amount of evidence that sheep are not dumb. In fact, they can be quite cunning in terms of getting in and out of things, and coming back and looking as if they never went out in the first place."

“We have found that sheep can recognise both human faces and emotions, and emotional changes on sheep faces. They are also able to form mental images of faces. They can recognise at least 50 different faces, and remember them for a couple of years or more," he added. "They are quite sophisticated in their social environment. They know what a happy face looks like compared to an angry one."

Then there are the famous ‘rolling sheep’ on the Yorkshire moors.

A few years back hungry sheep taught themselves to roll across cattle grids to raid villagers' gardens. The crafty animals have also perfected the skill of hurdling fences and squeezing through narrow gaps.

Dorothy Lindley, a Conservative councillor for Marsden, near Huddersfield, a former textile town on the edge of the Pennine uplands in West Yorkshire, was reported as saying: "They lie down on their side, or sometimes their back, and just roll over and over the grids until they are clear. I have seen them doing it. It is quite clever.”

Scientists have also discovered that sick sheep can accurately self-medicate for stomach problems. When animals were given food than made them slightly unwell, they were able to select and eat the right plants which then ‘cured’ constipation and heartburn.

Sheep stupid? No, they just know who their friends are.