Hello Kiwi- (and others interested in self-colored black in Soay sheep!)
I am in Washington state, USA, and raise Soay sheep. I am breeding in
particular for the recessive self-colored agouti, dark phase coat (that is,
phenotypically a solid black), but combined additionally with homozygous
recessive
white spotting. When I studied sheep breeds on the internet a few years ago,
the Arapawa sheep in particular caught my eye. From every photo I can readily
find via Google, all show every characteristic of being just the genotype I
am seeking. All appear to be self-colored, dark phase, most with white
spotting (thus Aa/Aa, BB/BB?, Ss/Ss).
Study the photos on this page, for good examples.
_http://www.badassbees.com/critters/critters.html_
(http://www.badassbees.com/critters/critters.html)
I don't find any photo examples showing a wild agouti (mouflon) pattern,
although someone may find one! Speculation that most of these Arapawa sheep
derived from Hebridians would be consistent with homozygous recessive
self-colored blacks, as that is the genotype of Hebridians, if I am not
mistaken.

Note that the patterns of white spotting parallel those produced in Soay
sheep in the Hareknoll flock of Sue Furness in Wales. Her flock has both mouflon
(wild) agouti and self-colored as well as both light and dark phases at brown
locus, all overlaid by varying degrees of white spotting. Sometimes the
extensive white spotting makes it pretty hard to tell the agouti and brown
patterns from any single photo.

_http://community.webshots.com/album/370079629TsqXYu_
(http://community.webshots.com/album/370079629TsqXYu)

Given that the Arapawa seem quite wooly, and are quite hefty, and have quite
long tails, I would say not very likely to be Soay heritage - but who knows
for sure.

Gevan Marrs
Woodland Creek Farm
Puyallup, Washington State, USA


In a message dated 4/7/2008 2:53:14 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
nmehome@... writes:




--- In _soaysheep@yahoogrousoaysh_ (mailto:soaysheep@yahoogroups.com) ,
"Juliet & Gordon"
<westergladstone@wes> wrote:
>
> Did anyone else see the BBC breakfast news this morning (2 April). I
caught
> the last few seconds of a feature which showed a mouflon coloured
Soay ewe
> with a black lamb. Presumably a hark back to the declining numbers
of dark
> coloured sheep on Hirta which merited an earlier item.
> So whose ewe and lamb were they?
>
> Gordon who is expecting his own black Soay lambs any day now.
>
Slightly off subject here, but I used to keep Soay sheep in SW France.
We've now moved to New Zealand and I can't find them here. There are
however these Awapawa Sheep from an island of the same name between
North and South Islands of NZ. They put me in mind of hefty Soays and
the males have good horn. The story goes that Shetland Islanders did
a reconnaisance of NZ way back when and left some of their sheep and
goats on the island as a kind of living larder. Does anyone know if
the sheep were Soays or relatives of them? They look black and white
when lambs and go mouflonesque when older.







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