AnimalsSheep are kept for wool, meat and milk. They are flock animals and feel safe only in a group. Like cattle and goats, they chew the cud.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Ovis aries
- Group
- Mammals
- Diet
- Herbivore (eats plants)
- Lives in
- Worldwide, with people
- Habitat
- Farms, hills and pasture
- A young one is called
- lamb
- A group is called
- flock
- Conservation status
- Domestic animal
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata
- Class Mammalia
- Order Artiodactyla
- Family Bovidae
- Genus Ovis
- Species Ovis aries
Other members of the family Bovidae on this site: blackbuck, cow, gaur, goat, nilgai, water buffalo, yak.
More distant relatives in the order Artiodactyla: Bactrian camel, chital, dromedary camel, giraffe, hippopotamus, moose, pig, reindeer, sambar, wild boar.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
The sheep is a domestic animal, kept and bred by people. Domestic animals are not assessed for the Red List of threatened species.