The Icelandic is the Icelandic

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of domestic sheep. It belongs to the Northern European Short-tailed group of sheep, and is larger than most breeds in that group. It is thought that it was introduced to Iceland by

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

in the late ninth or early tenth century. It is generally short-legged and stocky, slender and light-boned, and usually

horned A horn is a permanent pointed projection on the head of various animals that consists of a covering of keratin and other proteins surrounding a core of live bone. Horns are distinct from antlers, which are not permanent. In mammals, true ho ...

, although polled and polycerate animals can occur; there is a polled strain, the Kleifa. The fleece is double-coated and may be white or a variety of other colors; the face and legs are without

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

. The sheep are highly resistant to cold, and are generally left unshorn for the winter. Icelandic ewes are highly prolific, with a lambing percentage of 175–220%. The Þoka (Thoka)

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

is carried by some ewes, which may give birth to large litters of lambs. A unique strain within the population is the Leader sheep, which carries a hereditary ability or predisposition to lead other sheep safely over dangerous ground.

History

It is thought that the sheep were introduced to Iceland by

in the late ninth or early tenth century. Breed numbers reached a peak in 1978, when there were approximately 891 000, or about four sheep for every inhabitant of Iceland. By 2007 the total number had fallen to about 450 000. In 2018 a population of just over 432 000 was reported to DAD-IS.

Characteristics

The colors of Icelandic sheep are inherited in a similar way to those of other sheep, but they display more variety in color and pattern than most other breeds, and some variations are seen which are not seen in other sheep. Each sheep carries three genes that affect the color of the sheep, and each gene has dominant and recessive

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chrom ...

Use

Until the 1940s the Icelandic sheep was the predominant

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

-producing animal in Iceland. In the twenty-first century this sheep is reared principally for meat, which accounts for more than 80% of the total income derived from sheep farming. The fleece is double-coated, with a long outer coat () which gives protection from snow and rain, and a fine inner coat () which insulates the animal against the cold. The wool of the outer coat has a diameter of about or sometimes more, and a staple length of some the inner coat has a diameter of or sometimes less, with a staple length in the range The two types may be used separately, or spun into a single yarn, '' lopi'', a soft wool which provides good insulation.

History

Characteristics

Use

Notes

References

Further reading