Our new Sheep of NZ Platform is a little bit more than meets the eye… it’s also a cunning sheep tamer. The platform’s “insets” help visitors to get extra close to the sheep, but are also designed to help train our sheep to be more friendly. All four legged prey animals have what is called a “drive line”. The drive line is a point on the shoulder. If you approach an unhandled animal in front of the driveline it will spin around and run away from you. Get behind the driveline, and that animal will run forwards. All of our farm park sheep get very friendly, but are only used to people standing in front of them. However, if you walk around them and go past the driveline point on their shoulder, they will usually feel alarm and run forward in the same manner an untamed sheep would. With the insets, the sheep walk into them to be fed, and can get used to people moving around and walking behind their driveline. Very quickly, they learn not to be concerned.
