April 2, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 29, 1424

KARACHI, April 1: Mouflon sheep that carry a red coat with a light greyish saddle and a white belly, breed true to the design and pattern of body colours to merge with the surrounding — dirty-brown and black rocks of mountainsides where they live in the islands of Cyprus to the Caucasus and the north Iranian mountain range. A herd of 10 in the Safari Park is doing fine and has multiplied in conformity with the natural selection designed by nature.

For unknown reasons, a dappled lamb was born recently that loves to loiter with alien herbivora like the spotted deer without showing the intrinsic fear with which this species is born. Since the lamb was raised in communal surroundings that showed no fear of man, whom he has been looking at, right from the day he was born, he has lost caution. The lamb was mother-trained as all newborns are to recognize a friend from a foe, but this one is a different kettle of fish.

Young ones, born not true to the accepted natural pattern, are usually shunned by mama but this one was nursed by the mother. He is frisky and spirited, jumping on the rocky cropping in the enclosure to keep up his instinctive drive to climb craggy rocks where these sheep live, usually on the higher side of the cliff to be able to see the enemy like a hunter or a mountain cat looking for a meal.

The dappled markings are a mix-up of colouring genes that received a tumbling as the genes were arranging themselves for bringing out the normal pattern of the coat. The chances are, its offsprings will keep on recycling this abnormal pattern from time to time, including producing normal coloured brown, black and white markings with which they are distinguished from other wild sheep, most of which are camel-coloured.

This freak is not likely to survive for long in nature if released there. — Dr A. A. Quraishy