Expressive Ears

Sheep are quiet animals. They don’t make a lot of sound. They are not ‘loud mouths’. Lamb and mother will baa to each other; and sheep at a show, placed in pens alongside fellows, will likely baa. If sheep are suffering, it is not in their nature to voice it. But with their ears sheep are expressing things; this is by the positions the ears take. The question is ‘What is being expressed?’.

Expert, academic and professional study has delivered some suggestions as to what different ear positions are conveying. 

Dr Else Verbeek in the article ‘How Can You Tell Your Sheep Is Happy?’ (amazinganimalminds.com) describes how ‘researchers placed sheep in several different situations (negative and positive) and observed their ear postures’ and gives comment and summary.

‘The forward ear posture (sometimes the ears are also raised) has been observed when sheep are exposed to an unfamiliar situation ….This posture has also been observed when sheep were separated from their flock members, which is very stressful for sheep.

The forward ear posture could be a sign of increased attention when placed in a novel situation (or when looking at a strange camera), or it could be a sign of distress. 

Sheep generally have their ears neutral (perpendicular to the head-rump axis) or backward when they are standing calm and quietly, for example when ruminating. The proportion of time spent with their ears in the backward position increases even further during positive situations such as feeding and being voluntarily groomed by their handler. 

The neutral-backward posture therefore seems to be an indication of a calm state, and perhaps even of positive emotions. However, in a different study the backward ear posture was also observed during a situation when sheep could not control a grid moving over their feeding troughs that prevented them from eating. Sheep that were taught to remove the grid by crossing a photo beam with their muzzle did not show the backward ear posture as frequently.

The asymmetrical posture (one ear pointing back and the other ear pointing forward) has often been observed when sheep are distressed in situations such as separation from group members. The asymmetrical posture may also be an indication of frustration; ...

It has also been observed that sheep will change ear postures very frequently when they are stressed, while the ear postures change less often when in a more positive state such as feeding or ruminating. Sheep that constantly change their ear postures may therefore be in a negative state.’

Dr Verbeek says, ‘I have observed that the specific postures tend to differ between breeds. She then makes the important remark, ‘I also believe that the ear postures may be context dependent.’

In their article ‘Ear and tail postures as indicators of emotional valence in sheep’ (Applied Animal Behaviour Science 118 (2009), Reefmann et al reach this conclusion: ‘Negative emotional states appear to coincide with a high number of ear-posture changes, and positive emotional states with a high proportion of passive ear postures.’

The 2011 study by Boissy et al ‘Cognitive sciences to relate ear postures to emotions in sheep’ (Animal Welfare) finds that: ‘i) sheep point their ears backward when they face unfamiliar, unpleasant, and uncontrollable situations, hence likely to elicit fear; ii) they point their ears up when facing a similar negative situation but controllable, hence likely to elicit anger or at least some preparation of an active response; and iii) their ears are more often asymmetric in very sudden situations, likely to elicit surprise.’

The writer of the September 2019 article ‘Sheep Signals - what are they trying to tell you?’ (The George Farm Vets) reports this: 

‘Scientists have attempted to observe different ear positions on sheep and attribute them to particular emotions. The findings correlated with anecdotal evidence from farmers on how they would interpret a sheep’s demeanour - i.e. it matches up with what stockmen already knew.

• One ear forward one back tends to indicate surprise.

• Both ears back indicate fear or apprehension due to an uncontrolled situation.

• Ears down can indicate sickness.

• Horizontal position is neutral.’

Even the layperson, observing sheep, can absorb that sheep’s ears in their positions are expressing things and can have a fair instinct what is being ‘said’.

For those who care for sheep, looking closely at many aspects of the animal is vital. Most informative are its ears.