It's common knowledge that animals in isolated habitats often evolve peculiar traits. After all, it was Darwin's research on birds in the Galapagos islands which formed the foundational element of evolutionary theory.
The Isle of Man may be less sunny than the Galapagos, but our fauna are just as inbred as any other island! In today's post I bring you...Manx Cats and Loaghtan Sheep!
The Island has its own breed of domestic cat, known as a Manx Cat or a "stubbin" in Manx Gaelic (the local language, now barely spoken). Their most distinctive feature is their lack of a tail, along with long back legs. A couple of examples:
(image source: https://www.purina.com/)
(Image Source: https://cdn.mysmelly.com/)
They're excellent hunters (we have a couple who keep the house mouse-free!), and run with a strange rabbit-like gait as a result of their long hind legs and different way of balancing without a tail. Culturally, Manx cats are on of the Island's most popular exports. They've been around since the early 19th century, when a spontaneous tail-free mutation quickly spread through the Island's isolated cat population.
Our other peculiar local creature is the Loaghtan sheep (pronounced "luff-tun"). These strange animals have four horns! I've heard some have six, but those are particularly rare.
(Image Credit: By geni - Photo by user:geni, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15376798)
Their meet is considered quite the delicacy, although it's fairly common on the island. As an amateur but enthusiastic knitter, I love working with Loaghtan wool because it has a really beautiful natural color and is particularly warm.
(Photo Credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/)
It's been a busy week, so my last few posts about the Isle of Man have been on the short side...but keep following for the good stuff! Coming up, articles on motorbike madness, Mannanin's Mists and more!
Check out my previous posts about the Island:
https://steemit.com/landscapephotography/@donovanpage/isle-of-man-walking-on
https://steemit.com/travel/@donovanpage/the-isle-of-man-time-warp
https://steemit.com/travel/@donovanpage/the-isle-of-man-tax-haven
https://steemit.com/travel/@donovanpage/the-isle-of-man-an-introduction
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I wonder what @amavi or @holothewise think about these interesting adaptations of the animals on the Isle of Man :)
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The Manx cat is adorable, but that sheep is something else!
Do they know why the Manx and the sheep developed these traits? How did it help the species?
For the manx cat at least, it isn't a naturally-selected trait. It's a partially-dominant trait which mutated spontaneously, and then humans on the Island kept breeding these cats with short/no tails together until they took over the island. If you breed a manx cat with a non-manx cat, some of the kittens will have no tail or a shorter tail...etc. From my understanding this was in the mid 19th century, so basically an accident of nature combined with a Victorian penchant for peculiar pets. I'm not sure about the sheep, but they are a much more ancient breed...
Ah, yes, the Victorian act of inbreeding for peculiarity ;)
Very cool! Thanks for the quick response Donovan! Much appreciated!
Really interesting with four horns... I haven't seen that before. The cat is familiar to me though. I never thought about this kind of evolution in isolated habitats, really interesting.
Surprisingly ... I thought that I not bad at knowing the fauna, but I had never heard of such miracles.
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