What Family Do Sheep Belong To? A Quick Guide to Sheep's Family and Genus Classification

Sheep are one of the most common domestic livestock, with coat color mainly white. Every part of them is useful: the wool can be made into various woolen fabrics and leather goods, and the meat can be eaten, long used as a prized tonic for vitality. So, what family do sheep belong to?

1. What family do sheep belong to?

Sheep are bovids. They have a relatively plump body, a full figure, dense body hair, four legs, and a pair of horns on the head or no horns, with coat color mainly white.

2. What breeds of sheep are there?

There are many breeds of sheep, such as sheep (wool sheep), Hu sheep, goats, bharals, and so on.

1. Sheep (wool sheep)

The places in China where sheep are raised the most are Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and other areas. They have a full body and dense body hair, with a white coat; rams have large spiral horns, while ewes have no horns or only small thin ones. They are gentle in temperament, strongly gregarious, have a keen sense of smell, are strong feeders, like dry and clean conditions, and are cold-resistant but afraid of heat and humidity.

2. Hu sheep

Hu sheep are mainly produced in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and the Taihu area. They are a precious lambskin breed and also a world-famous prolific wool sheep breed. They are medium in size, with neither rams nor ewes having horns, a long narrow head, a raised nasal bridge, and mostly large drooping ears; the coat is all white, and the belly wool is coarse, sparse, and short. They like quiet, are afraid of dampness, mosquitoes and flies, and light, like to eat grass at night, and prefer a dry and clean living environment.

3. Goats

Goats are widely raised in the vast agricultural and pastoral areas of China and have the characteristics of a high reproduction rate, strong adaptability, and easy management. They are brave and lively, agile and clever, like to climb high, are good at roaming, and love to butt horns; they have strong foraging ability, are omnivorous in diet, and can eat hundreds of kinds of grass; they have a strong herd instinct, like cleanliness, love dryness, and dislike filth and dampness.

4. Bharals

Bharals are distributed in China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, western Sichuan, northern Yunnan, western Inner Mongolia, Gansu, northern Ningxia, southern Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and other places, and are national second-class key protected wild animals. They are medium in size, with a form between wild goats and wild sheep; both sexes have horns, with rams' horns thick and large like ox horns but only slightly curving downward, backward, and upward; the head is long and narrow, the ears are short and small, and the whole body is blue-gray.