Sheepbody language.

Clever, social and never happier than with the flock, a face-reader who hides pain well.

87Signals mapped

29Science-backed references

166Unique scenarios

Start with the animal

Who the sheep is.

Sheep are flock animals and prey animals, and almost everything they do makes sense once you remember that. A sheep feels safe when other sheep are close, and like most hunted animals, sheep try hard not to look weak, so they hide pain.

They are also much smarter than their reputation. Sheep can recognise the faces of dozens of other sheep and still remember them two years later.

What FaunaVera looks at

The signals we read.

A few of the channels FaunaVera watches and listens to in every sheep video, weighed together with context and checked against a sheep-specific ethogram.

Ears

The best mood signal.

For exampleLoose, hanging ears go with calm, good moments like grazing or being gently brushed. Ears held back go with bad moments.

Face

The sheep pain face.

For exampleNarrowed eyes, tight cheeks, ears turned back and down and V-shaped nostrils are part of validated sheep pain scales.

Legs and walking

Lameness.

For exampleA head bobbing with each step, short steps on one leg or grazing on the knees are signs of lameness.

Body

Posture and stillness.

For exampleA hunched back, or standing frozen like a statue with the head low, can mean pain.

Flock

Distance and togetherness.

For exampleA sheep standing apart from the flock, head low and not eating or chewing the cud, may be unwell.

Voice

Bleats and rumbles.

For exampleA ewe and her lamb learn each other’s voices within the first two days, and lambs know both their mother’s low rumble and her loud bleat.

Did you know?

Sheep can recognise the faces of dozens of other sheep and remember them for two years, and they can learn to recognise familiar people from photos.

Common misreads

“A sheep held for shearing who stops struggling is calm.”Being caught, held and shorn is frightening. Look at the eyes, ears and breathing, not just the stillness.
“A sheep who keeps up with the flock isn’t in pain.”Sheep hide pain, and a sheep can keep up with the flock and still be lame.
“A sheep on their back is just resting.”A sheep on their back who can’t get up is cast. That is an emergency, and they need rolling upright now.

Being around a sheep

Move calmly and quietly, and never separate one sheep from the flock if you can help it. Even a picture of a familiar sheep’s face calms a sheep who is alone, but the real fix is other sheep.

See it for yourself

Your sheep, read in seconds.

Upload a short video and FaunaVera reads the whole picture for you: an Interpretation, Voice of Animal, practical Tips and Ethogram Insights that explain exactly which signals it saw.

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Where this comes from

A few of the studies.

FaunaVera's sheep ethogram draws on 29 science-backed references. Here are a handful of them.

K. M. Kendrick et al. (2001). Sheep don’t forget a face. Nature, 414, 165-166. Read
N. Reefmann, F. Bütikofer Kaszás, B. Wechsler & L. Gygax (2009). Ear and tail postures as indicators of emotional valence in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 118(3-4), 199-207. Read
K. M. McLennan et al. (2016). Development of a facial expression scale using footrot and mastitis as models of pain in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 176, 19-26. Read
F. Knolle, R. P. Goncalves & A. J. Morton (2017). Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images. Royal Society Open Science, 4(11), 171228. Read
A. Boissy et al. (2011). Cognitive sciences to relate ear postures to emotions in sheep. Animal Welfare, 20(1), 47-56. Read
F. Sèbe, R. Nowak, P. Poindron & T. Aubin (2007). Establishment of vocal communication and discrimination between ewes and their lamb in the first two days after parturition. Developmental Psychobiology, 49(4), 375-386. Read