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melodien t1_iyzklar wrote

Selective breeding. Before they were domesticated, sheep would shed their fleece naturally. In fact there is a type called a Dorper (quite common in my area) which still does. The same goes for Angora rabbits - they were selectively bred for their fur, and now that have to be shorn because they can't shed their coats naturally.

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nathhad t1_iz044p9 wrote

You can also add Katahdin and Barbados Blackbelly to the breeds that shed. However, those three breeds (including Dorper) don't produce wool at all that is in any way usable, it's more of a fuzz. They are all raised almost exclusively for meat.

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melodien t1_iz33n3g wrote

I believe the Dorper was developed in South Africa as a meat sheep, so that makes sense.

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LaoBa t1_iyzvkq5 wrote

Soay sheep, an ancient breed from the Scottish isles, also shed their wool

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ajenni1120 t1_iz0zgq7 wrote

The article says soay means sheep , so is this sheep technically called sheep sheep?

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toxicatedscientist t1_iz0zspp wrote

Sahara means desert, so if there's a desert desert then there's probably a sheep sheep, too

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Caelinus t1_iz172do wrote

Panera means "Bread Basket," so Panera Bread is "Bread Basket Bread" which is a silly name.

Unrelated, but the funniest company name to me is still Schlecht Construction as Schlecht is one of the German words for "bad" in the objective sense. (as opposed to "feeling bad.")

So the name of the company is "Bad Construction" or just as accurately "Unskilled Construction" or "Bad Quality Construction." I know that it is probably just a last name, but it makes me laugh every time I see their logo.

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vesuvisian t1_iz30zc8 wrote

Panera Bread could be justified as meaning “bread from the bread basket.”

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Caelinus t1_iz33ck7 wrote

It can be parsed that way in English, but essentially no one would form and use that sentence. The only way it would work is if the "breadbasket" in some way did something special to bread aside from containing it. So it would be possible say that the store is called "Breadbasket" and it serves bread from itself, but then its name would just be Panera.

To use that construction with its actual name being "Panera Bread" you would need to call it Panera Bread Bread, or Breadbasket Bread Bread.

To me it seems pretty clear that they wanted to name themselves Panera after changing their name from Au Bon Pain, and realized that they might have marketing issues as most people would not immediately know what either of those names meant. So they just tacked bread on the end of their new name to make it obvious what their specialty was.

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welshmanec2 t1_iz1rdin wrote

Half the rivers in this country translate as river river. Folk used to be just as unimaginative as they are today.

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Weaselpuss t1_iz130uo wrote

Happens a lot. In fact there’s a lot of rivers in England that are called “river river” because the Roman’s didn’t understand that the natives were just telling them their word for river and not the actual name.

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TheKaptinKirk t1_iz18q9y wrote

Pendle Hill (Hill Hill Hill), Mekong River (River river river)

List of Tautological Place Names

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TristesteLivet t1_iz18zhp wrote

Ignoring the fact that soay sounds almost like the Norwegian word for sleep, sau, soay also sounds like what you would call a female sheep, "søye".

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psycho202 t1_iz25ayg wrote

which is also funnily close to the dutch word for boring, "saai", which in flemish dialects is pronounced pretty similar to "soay".

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model563 t1_iz19gga wrote

There's a geyser in Iceland called "Geysir", but it's just named once. All others are just named after it.

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catdoctor t1_iz1u7z1 wrote

Well, there is a Loch Lochy in Scotland, and a Dunne Castle (dunne means castle), so why not?

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Yen1969 t1_iz10g2f wrote

Another minor point:

Most wool sheep can still shed their wool, but it is usually a sign of being stressed or sick. I expect that if left to "go back wild", the first n generations of sheep will probably shed their wool when heat stressed in the summer. Not at all healthy for them, but those that survive from being easier/faster to shed would likely begin to self-correct back to become shedding sheep again.

Source: I have a small Southdown flock and used to have Dorper/Katahdin crosses. We had one ewe that lost around 70% of her wool mid winter last year from an illness. We saved her, but not the twins she carried.

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wolf1moon t1_iz15nlb wrote

Wasn't there an escaped sheep that just kept growing? When they caught it a few years later, it was a complete wreck of wool

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WantsToBeUnmade t1_iz1d4mw wrote

>I expect that if left to "go back wild", the first n generations of sheep will probably shed their wool when heat stressed in the summer.

It's a reasonable expectation, but turns out they don't lose their wool to heat stress. It happens regularly in Australia that a sheep escapes or isn't picked up for whatever reason at shearing time, and then survives for years without being shorn. The record is a ram named Chris whose fleece weighed 41kg (90.2 lbs.)

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/25/mammoth-woolly-baarack-the-overgrown-sheep-shorn-of-his-35kg-fleece

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Level9TraumaCenter t1_iz1f4qn wrote

After ~200 years, the Santa Cruz Island sheep were similar in that they established an unmanaged population. The Nature Conservancy reclaimed the island from non-native grazing species, and Santa Cruz sheep were either captured or exterminated.

I don't know much about them other than what Google has to say, but I can't see anyone claiming they shed their coat, just that "Sheep have little or no wool on their bellies, faces, and legs, and many have short, woolless 'rat' tails."

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WantsToBeUnmade t1_iz65puk wrote

The Santa Cruz sheep were also regularly rounded up and shorn. They were also culled often. They were feral in as much as no one was actively managing or feeding them, but the fleece was valuable and the locals took advantage of that.

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UsernameObscured t1_iz0vfv9 wrote

How would you categorize sheep like a Shetland that you can “roo”, or basically peel the fleece off?

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Millerjustin1 t1_iz1393f wrote

The use of “shorn” proves you to be a credible source to me.

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melodien t1_iz30tyk wrote

I'm a knitter: my relationship with wool (and any other knittable fibre) verges on obsession. And I have the stash to prove it.

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DanYHKim t1_iz1t3wp wrote

There was an Australian experimental transgenic sheep that would shed it's wool all at once after being given an injection. The gene was activated in response to (A homone? An antibiotic?), and the sheep would shed in a few days. They would wear a kind of spandex bodysuit to hold the wool together until they were plucked in one go.

The shearers didn't like this, and the results weren't good enough to justify the process in the end.

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invectioncoven t1_iz2gzbn wrote

This is fascinating, I hadn't heard of it before. It looks like it works on normal sheep, it's simply a peptide or growth factor that causes a temporary break in the integrity of the wool, and is metabolised after that.

I guess as cool as it was, it didn't save money, and didn't catch on in the industry enough to keep the company that made it afloat.

https://www.odditycentral.com/news/bioclip-the-alternative-wool-harvesting-system-that-never-quite-took-off.html

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DanYHKim t1_iz3hn9a wrote

I'm impressed. I just read it in a news piece years ago, but your were able to find the details. Nice!

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redditrbf t1_iz0um4t wrote

A bit like poodles?

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5Cone t1_iz128x3 wrote

Do you mean the selective breeding or can poodles secretly shed by themselves? Almost all animals that people have found a use for are nowadays the result of selective breeding.

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