Disappointment in the sheepfold and university: The young animal Flumo, born in mid-August on a rest farm near Glücksburg on the Flensburg Fjord, is not a rare sheep as expected. The analysis of the blood showed that it was a sheep and not a mixture of sheep and goat, said livestock researcher Clemens Falker-Gieske from the University of Göttingen the German Press Agency. “We are a bit disappointed that Flumo is now a sheep.” It was hoped that Flumo would be a second goat-sheep hybrid that could be researched.
Years ago, a slippery thing made headlines
Sheep and goats biologically belong to the same subfamily of goats. But they have a different set of chromosomes. While goats have 60 chromosomes, sheep only have 54. This makes crossbreeding difficult.
Ten years ago, such a hybrid creature made national headlines when a sheep was born in the Göttingen district. Flumo is the only case since then that he is aware of, said Falker-Gieske. “We don’t know the number of unreported cases.” Of course, it could happen “here and there” that goats and sheep produce offspring.
The Göttingen researchers would have liked to deepen their work on hybrids with Flumo. “We hoped to have a second layer for analyzes with Flumo because it was difficult for us to only work with one case,” said Falker-Gieske. Three individuals are ideal for research work in order to achieve reliable results. The Göttingen Schiege case led to good results; a second Schiege would have further validated the research results.
One question, for example, would be whether genetically it always happens in the same way when a slip is created. In addition, the Göttingen goat had an autoimmune disease and the researchers would have liked to use another example to confirm that this is related to that animal is a hybrid.
Flumo remains the mascot of the Flight Mode Festival
The little goat Flumo has white fur with brown spots – just like the billy goat Rune, who has lived with a small flock of sheep in the paddock behind the house for years. The only ram in the herd has dark fur. The little goat was born when the Flugmode festival was being held on the farm. So the name for the offspring quickly became clear: Flumo.
The farm owner Dag, who only wanted to be published with his first name, told the dpa, “I’m not deeply sad, but I’m certainly disappointed.” Also because that’s the end of the story. His relationship with the little goat doesn’t change. “And Flumo remains the mascot of the Flight Mode Festival.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:241001-930-248398/1
Disappointment in the sheepfold and university: The young animal Flumo, born in mid-August on a rest farm near Glücksburg on the Flensburg Fjord, is not a rare sheep as expected. The analysis of the blood showed that it was a sheep and not a mixture of sheep and goat, said livestock researcher Clemens Falker-Gieske from the University of Göttingen the German Press Agency. “We are a bit disappointed that Flumo is now a sheep.” It was hoped that Flumo would be a second goat-sheep hybrid that could be researched.
