Sheep

A sheep was the first animal to be artificially cloned. A cloned animal is a genetically identical copy of another animal. The first cloned sheep was created from cells that were taken from an adult sheep. This scientific breakthrough occurred when the new sheep was cloned from another sheep. Scientists named the result of their experiment Dolly. Dolly lived for approximately seven years, but she had a progressive lung disease, and she eventually had to be euthanized.

Besides being the first cloned animal, sheep are also important animals to people because they can provide both food and clothing to human beings. People who watch flocks of sheep are known as shepherds. Shepherds help keep sheep safe from harm and help protect them against attacks by wild animals.

Today, many sheep are more domesticated than wild. There are more than eight hundred breeds and types of domestic sheep. These domestic sheep can provide people with wool, meat, and milk. Farmers raising sheep are able to use land that is not good for growing crops. Sheep are able to graze on land that would otherwise remain unused by the farmer.