Xtreme sheep

By: Leonie Barrie - 9 June 2006 15:19

Sheep come in all shapes and sizes, but it’s the ugly ones that Australian boffins are looking for. A search has been launched by The South Australian Research and Development Institute to try to track down the country's ugliest merinos – ones born with rough, uneven or extra-curly wool, bald patches, or even very wrinkled skin – to try to identify genes that produce high quality wool.

According to researcher Paul Hynd, a DNA study of these sheep could help make Australian wool more stretchy, less scratchy, shinier and easier to spin. If you’re still not sure what an ugly sheep is, take a look at some of the pictures:

Ugly photo gallery