| Previously, the concept of a gestation period of sheep shorter than 121 days was unheard of in the field of sheep biology. Our findings during a farmers’ survey in the Lotkho area of Chitral, Pakistan, revealed that the sheep native to the region, locally called “Kari”, gestates for a period of only three months. This duration is 25-40% short of the usual gestation length and is shorter than ever recorded for the species. The mean and mode gestation length (GL) was 110 and 92 days respectively and was concentrated in three distinct clusters: day 87-95, 120-123 and 151-153, accounting for 52% of all observations. GL was influenced by location, season of conception and lambing and the interaction of location with season; had... |
