Of Sheep and tame Impalas

The Sheep

We have beautiful indigenous sheep on the farm. This little fella is 2 days old.

(the black sheep of the family)

Each sheep looks quite unique with a different colouring of their coats. They are friendly, gentle animals. And masters at escaping into the fenced off game camp..... Who ever said that sheep are simple? On the contrary, they are quite clever.

They beg for food, come close to be scratched and seem to have a built in clock. It tells them exactly when it is time to come home to check their chances of perhaps getting an extra little something. Usually they are right as Herbert is near with the promising bucket containing maize kernels.

And usually they are lucky :)

The Impalas

This is Phillip our tame Impala.We got him about 6 years ago from a family who raised him with a bottle. As Phillip became bigger and his horns started to grow he became too dangerous to the family and he came to our farm.

We released him into the game fenced camp and he lived there happily with all the other Impalas. About 2 years ago we started to notice him being chased by a Blesbuck.

(A Blesbuck ewe with her calf.....)

It got so bad that Phillip would jump the fence and run towards our house for protection. We tried to keep the wild Belsbuck away from him as best we could, but alas, about 18 months ago he broke his right front leg in a fight. The break was quite bad and we thought we had to put him down. But Phillip didn't give up, he hobbled around and grazed and lay under the trees for about 3 months. The leg bone grew back together and Phillip got so well that he is now running around again as if it never broke. We notice that if the weather turns he seems to have some pain in his leg. (Like humans do too)

He stays on the "human part" of our farm permanently now and only has the occasional excursion into the bush. Quite often he will bring a friend along for dinner as well.

It is fascinating to watch these animals close up.