SOAY SHEEP
We have Mr Harman to thank for the soay sheep. Michael Williams informs us, in the official Lundy guide, that Harman introduced the soay to the island in 1942. They are a hardy small sheep, originally from the St Kilda archipelago in Scotland.
The sheep have short tails and naturally shed their wool, which is dark brown to black mostly and have white bellies and a white rump patch. The lambs have a lighter tan coat. Both ewes and rams can be horned or not, so sexing them at distance can be problematical.
The ewes leave the flock to give birth alone and will often leave their lambs while foraging. If you find a lamb on its own, please leave it be, mother is not far away and will return once you have left.
Once the lambs are a few weeks old the ewes and lambs join up with other soay to form smallherds which will eventually form much larger herds.
During the rut, the rams spend nearly all their time and energy fighting other rams and trying to breed. So much so that eating is a secondary consideration. When walking around Lundy in the late autumn and winter it is not uncommon to find the carcasses of rams that have starved to death, even though there is plenty of fodder.
When the cullers come across, they will target the rams if there are too many, to try stop this from happening. There were over 300 soay sheep on Lundy when I left and they are easily spotted north of Quarter Wall. In fact, you do not even need to leave the road, you will spot them as you travel up the island.
