Sheep set sail for pastures new
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It’s not something you would normally expect to see just 10 minutes from Hammersmith; seven Hebridean sheep on a boat heading to an island in the middle of a lake...
Hebrideans are a Rare Breed and are kept at WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes, to manage the grassland which encourages the growth of native wild flowers. They have been moved to a shingle island in the Centre’s Sheltered Lagoon to eat the vegetation over the next couple of months.
If the vegetation were left to die off and rot the soil would become too nutrient-rich for wild flowers to grow. But using these ‘woolly lawnmowers’ to eat the vegetation creates ideal conditions for the flowers next spring.
Adam Salmon, Reserve Manager, explained, “It’s very difficult to get machinery out to the islands to cut the grasses, plants and shrubs. The sheep are ideal as they are quite small so we can transport them in the boat fairly easily. They’re a hardy breed so we’ll just leave them on the island to chomp their way through the vegetation. We check up on them regularly, but otherwise they seem quite content to be left to get on with it.”
Shingle islands are ideal for wading birds such as lapwing and redshank which prefer short vegetation to live and breed in.
“When they first get in the boat they seem slightly surprised, but the trip only takes a few minutes and once on the island they soon get on with eating everything in sight,” concluded Adam.
