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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 04/08/2026

Is it better to have lots of friends or just a few close ones? This #ProcB study of wild Soay sheep finds the answer depends on the weather. Large social networks boost survival in harsh winters, while close bonds matter more in milder conditions buff.ly/iKKcWBp | #Behaviour #Ecology #Evolution

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

By now most of the sheep have shed last year's wool coat, meaning they don't need to be sheared. Some however hold on to little tufts that make striking head pieces, like this one sported by DY547 here 🔭🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Plenty of Sheepies in attendance at #Exe2026 hosted by @exeter.ac.uk. Come and listen to talks, see posters, or catch us about to learn more about our work!

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

St Kilda World Heritage Site NTS @stkildawhs.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

This 1st winter Iceland Gull has been present on #StKilda since at least 3rd April. There was also a reported Glaucous Gull from @soaysheep.bsky.social researchers on 22nd March. Eyes are back on the island 👀 @hebridesbirds.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Its that time again! With a spring in their step the lambing team arrived on Hirta this week after only one day of delays. Let censusing commence! 🔭🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Today at #bes2025 we have @elliswiersma.bsky.social talking about breeding phenology at 11:30, @mattjsilk.bsky.social presenting the benefits of sociality at 12:30 and @barnardlucy.bsky.social presenting a poster on epigenetic ageing (B17.16)

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Sheepies are at @britishecologicalsociety.org ! Kicking off today we have Gina and Lizzie presenting their posters on immune trait variation (A17.3) and early life conditions (A17.13)

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

An early-life survival and reproductive trade-off shapes selection on body size doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Maria João Janeiro et al. 📷: Sam Whitfield

A photo of a heard of 13 Soay sheep on Flat Holm Island, Wales. The sheep are clustered close together, and are a mixture of dark brown and light colors.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Announcing our Tup of the Trip! DR093 weighed in at 42kg he is our heaviest tup since 2021 and the 10th heaviest November measurement ever. Safe to say that great condition showed, we observed him in 17 consorts over the month 😍🔭🐏

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Foggy weather has grounded our field team. Instead we are doing an ask the researcher over on our instagram soaysheep. Head over there to join in! 🔭🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

We’ve got snow! Good thing the sheep are all wrapped up in their woolly jackets 🔭🐑

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

St Kilda World Heritage Site NTS @stkildawhs.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Delighted to receive this late season record of a 1cy Ring-necked Duck on #StKilda yesterday from @soaysheep.bsky.social researcher Xavier Bal. A 2nd island record after the first in 2000! Thanks for this fab 📷 @barnardlucy.bsky.social 🙂 @birdguides.bsky.social @hebridesbirds.bsky.social

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Census 6 completed! The tups are really starting to size each other up now, either guarding males or hanging around in groups like this particularly large one

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Safe to say the sheepies are hiding inside a lot of today 🔭🐑

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

Lucy Barnard @barnardlucy.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Back out counting sheep! 🔭🐑 @soaysheep.bsky.social

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

And to round off the Sheepie presence at @eseb2025.bsky.social we had a full house for Lizy giving a talk on the missing fraction problem! Thanks for having us Barcelona!

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

📜🐏Sheepies at @eseb2025.bsky.social! Some of our PhD students are presenting their work in tonight’s poster session. Check them out here: @barnardlucy.bsky.social on epigenetics #8, @lizziedrake.bsky.social and sex specific senescence #10, and @elliswiersma.bsky.social with breeding phenology #350

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

🔭🐑 Our summer field team have been busy beavering away and have completed their 10 censuses of the village bay population (picured). Over ten days a team of three will go out and count all the sheep in this area, tagged and untagged, so we know who is where and who they are grouping with.

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

Discovery Immunology @discovimmunol.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

T-helper cell responses in wild Soay sheep are repeatable, positively correlated, and linked to resistance against helminths and coccidia, challenging assumptions about Th1/Th2 trade-offs in natural settings. 📖 Read more: bit.ly/3GCm0PN #VeterinaryImmunology

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

💻🐑 Update! Back on the mainland our team at @sheffielduni.bsky.social have been beavering away and have finished extracting DNA and aligning over 1000 whole sheep genomes as part of an exciting new project. Keep an eye out for more as the work progresses.

A blue test tube rack filled with numbered tubes. Next to it is a pipette and papers.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

🔭🐑 Check it out! With the lambing team back on the mainland have a look at the stats for the arrival of the Echo Orange cohort of 2025!

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

St Kilda World Heritage Site NTS @stkildawhs.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I wonder what way the wind is blowing today ?💨 #sheep #soaysheep

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Reposted by Soay Sheep Project

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 29/04/2025

For the feral #sheep on the remote St Kilda islands of #Scotland, long-term success hinges on the first year of life, especially for males. Here are the interesting reasons why: www.pnas.org/post/journal... #ecology #EvolutionaryEcology #SexualDimorphism #SexualSelection

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

🔭🐑 The first lambs have arrived, and spot on time from consort sightings in November! Soon village bay will be full of skipping lambs and frantic field workers....🏃‍♀️‍➡️

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

📰🐑New Paper! PhD researcher @lizziedrake.bsky.social and collaborators looked at how harsh environments in a Soay's first year can have lasting impacts on reproduction and lifespan, and how they differ for males and females. Read it here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

🔭🐑 Saturday saw a big milestone for our field team who completed their 10th and final census of the trip and were rewarded with some glorious weather! Bring on the Lambs...

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

🔭🐑 Our lambing field season is underway! Last week our lambing team arrived and started out on their first big job of the trip, study area censusing. They will try and spot as many sheep as they can across 10 censuses over the next couple of weeks

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

📰🐑 We're on the cover! If you haven't already seen it, check out a piece about how our long term field research helps studying ageing in the wild.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The combination of different horn shapes, colour morphs and sometimes white patches make every sheep unique to the keen eye. But when we are out censusing it’s much easier to tell them apart by their unique colour tag and number which can be spotted through the teloscope 🔭🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Sheepie News! A perspective piece in @natureaging.bsky.social highlights the importance of long term research and how St Kilda Soay sheep project provides a powerful model for understanding why ageing process varies under complex environmental conditions. Check it out: doi.org/10.1038/s435... 📰🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

With the lambing season fast approaching, it's time to meet the sheep! Soay sheep come in four colour morphs or "flavours" indicating their body and belly colours: dark-wild, dark-self, light-wild, and light-self. The most common is the dark wild morph with a brown body and white belly.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

We've arrived! The Soay Sheep project now has Bluesky 🦋 Follow along for "bleats" about all things sheep related, from field work to research output and everything in between 🔭🐑

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Sheepies on the move! Tomorrow is our annual sheep meeting in Edinburgh bringing together researchers from across the country for all things Soay Sheep 💻🐑 . #SoaySheepProject #research #ecology

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Rut Team 2024! Xavier, Rebecca, and Lucy have (just about) finished a four week trip to do our autumn data collection: censusing, behaviour, and vegetation sampling, as well as setting up some extra wind loggers for the winter 🔭🐏 . . #fieldwork #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Every cloud has its sliver lining! Today the Rut team were supposed to be heading home but weather conditions have meant we get an extra day on St Kilda and some bonus data collection 🔭🐏 . . #fieldwork #research #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

What I see vs what the scope sees. The unsung hero of our field work, our telescopes help us spot all of our study animals and read their tags while not having to get too close to disturb them. This chap is DO004 🔭🐏 #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology #fieldwork #seenature

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

What a difference a couple of days can make! The rut team this trip have really had it all from sun to snow

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 30/06/2024

So, in the final hour of my final day in my 4th decade of running the field side of the Soay sheep Project, I say thank you to the 100s of people I have worked with and thank you to all followers of this Twitter feed, I have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming you into this sheep fold.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 30/06/2024

I rarely use this for personal tweets but I would like people who have followed my Mother's Birthday tweets over the years to know that the day after I returned to mainland from my final lambing trip, she left us at 101 - knowing I was home safe at last.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 02/05/2024

Lamb races are just beginning as they discover the joy of life.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 27/04/2024

"Lambing Team 2024" plus ewe supervising her lamb being weighed.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 23/04/2024

Moon light on the bay last night.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 21/04/2024

Full lambing team now here and we are busy trying to catch up with over 100 new lambs on the hill, all awaiting their turn on the weigh scales.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 18/04/2024

Some times three is a crowd when trying to nest on top of a cleit.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 17/04/2024

We get some twins too, often double trouble. These two have been put in a creche by the looks of it.

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Soay Sheep Project @soaysheep.bsky.social · 17/04/2024

The final two members of our lambing team are stuck on the Uist due to bad weather, here visiting the St Kilda view point on North Uist to give us a wave.

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