Sheep communicate in many different ways some which are obvious like baaing and head bumping. But I know they talk to each other in subtle ways too, it’s just harder for me to see the cues they give to each other. I’m more likely to see the results.
This morning Biddy stuck her head out of the barn and Asher came over to her as if they had something to say to each other.
Then they bumped heads.
Not as hard as the younger sheep sometimes do, but enough, I guess, to get across what each wanted to say. After that Biddy went back into the barn and Asher walked away.
Asher is a lot younger and bigger than Biddy so I’m assuming he got this way. But for all I know, Biddy might have told him to leave her alone and he did.
This struck a chord for me since I have house rabbits. I’m always watching them interact, looking to understand their communications. Both sheep and rabbits are social, prey animals so I wonder if they share any forms of communication. Do sheep groom each other? When one of my rabbits is annoyed with the other, the annoyed one hops a few feet away with more vehemence than necessary, then looks back over their shoulder to see if the offending rabbit has noticed being shunned.
That’s interesting about your rabbits Trish. I’ve never seen the sheep groom each other, although they do eat the hay off of each others backs when they get messy from eating. But that’s more about food than grooming!