AT RISK

As Prey

Sheep are prey animals. This means that they are always at risk of suffering fear, stress, injury, death, because of attention from predators. Making sheep approachable to predators are: that they are not very large in size - and when as lambs are small indeed; that they have almost nothing to stand up to predators with other than to get together and form ‘a front’, or else to stamp a foot; that their only method of fight back is bash with head.

Who are sheep’s predators? Humans, for a start. Their reasons for catching sheep can be benevolent, but often reasons are in the ‘ultimately for humans’ best interest’ category. Alone, a human can, with a bit of effort, catch a sheep. With sheepdogs’ assistance to round the sheep up, the human’s task of catching a sheep is thoroughly made easier.

Humans apart, dogs are sheep’s main predators. Dogs’ natural instinct is to ‘go’ for sheep, stressing them, making them rush away - possibly into dangerous circumstance, maybe injuring them. Sheep may die from injury or stress. Guardian dogs exist who are trained to protect sheep from predators, example is the Maremma Sheepdog livestock guardian dog (‘Domestic sheep predation’ Wikipedia).

Other predators are foxes, wolves, coyotes, bears, lions, birds of prey such as eagles, and corvids. Lambs are especially easy prey. Crows peck out lambs’ eyes.  

In Scotland lambs are being attacked and killed by sea eagles (white-tailed eagles). Sea eagles have been reintroduced into Scotland, initially into the Isle of Rum in the 1975-1985 period. On 17th July this year NatureScot told that ‘Forty new satellite tags will soon track sea eagles in western Scotland to investigate how sea eagles and livestock interact.’. It said, ‘Nature Scot has provided funding for the satellite tags for this collaborative research project, which brings together a broad team of experts to assess the extent of sea eagle predation of lambs and sheep.’ (‘Joint sea eagle tagging project launched to discover how birds interact with livestock’).

As prey animals, because of their relatively small size, and due to their essential inability to fight back at predators, sheep are very vulnerable and at risk.

24th September 2026