Breeding between the lines

“When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, he shall separate one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats”— Matthew

These animals’ high profiles in the Holy Book did not, however, prevent ‘unnatural practices’ from occurring on a Co Kildare farm, where a sheep-goat hybrid has been born.

Breeding across the species divide, although rare, is fairly widespread in the animal kingdom. The melting of the ice cap, for example, has brought polar bears and grizzlies into such proximity that they sometimes interbreed.