Sheep

On my recent trip, we made a stop in Barbados where I took a tour of the island that included a stop at Park's Farm which is a working farm that raises the Barbados black belly sheep. These sheep are thought to have been imported from Africa by early British settlers.

They are different from the sheep we're used to seeing. Besides their color, which includes a black belly, they produce no wool. It took me a while to realize that they could not survive the climate in Barbados if they had wool. Instead, they have hair, coarse hair and are raised as a food source. There were several young sheep, we even got to pet a four week old. They are so cute and could easily be confused with goats. The difference is that goats have horns and beards and the sheep have none.

After seeing them, and touching them, I don't think I'll be ordering lamb chops anytime soon.