[Penninehillbilly]

Some years ago there was a post about carnivorous brambles, how they catch a sheep, it dies, feeds the plant.
tonight there was a ewe lamb missing, I've never forgotten that post, walked down to where I knew there was a bramble patch down a banking, yup, there she was. She broke free as I got to her, by the time I'd scrambled back up she was eating with the others.
So if that person is still around on here, thank you, you probably saved her life  .
Loppers out tomorrow, can't do with scrambling among brambles in the dark.

[Bywaters]

I bet you will be feeling painful points in your fingers for a couple of days, where you have been pricked !

Similar for me yesterday. Rnty lamb, not strong enough to pull himself out of the brambles.
Now moved to a field with fewer brambles

[SallyintNorth]

Some years ago there was a post about carnivorous brambles, how they catch a sheep, it dies, feeds the plant.
tonight there was a ewe lamb missing, I've never forgotten that post, walked down to where I knew there was a bramble patch down a banking, yup, there she was. She broke free as I got to her, by the time I'd scrambled back up she was eating with the others.
So if that person is still around on here, thank you, you probably saved her life  .
Loppers out tomorrow, can't do with scrambling among brambles in the dark.

Almost certainly @Fleecewife.  We all talk about them as carnivorous plants now, but I'm pretty sure it was Fleecewife first put it that way

[Fleecewife]

Guilty as charged 
I'm so glad that story helped you rescue your lamb Penninehillbilly 
I'm glad also that you still recognise them as carnivorous brambles Sally 

[SallyintNorth]

I'm glad also that you still recognise them as carnivorous brambles Sally 

I find it a very helpful image to pass on to trainee sheepkeepers here.  We have the combination from hell in our hedgerows - blackthorn and brambles.  Yummy fruits but literally death to sheep if they get in there.  And a need for regular pruning to keep the sheep-snaring plants within their bounds - behind the stock fencing.

[Fleecewife]

I'm glad also that you still recognise them as carnivorous brambles Sally 

I find it a very helpful image to pass on to trainee sheepkeepers here.  We have the combination from hell in our hedgerows - blackthorn and brambles.  Yummy fruits but literally death to sheep if they get in there.  And a need for regular pruning to keep the sheep-snaring plants within their bounds - behind the stock fencing.

Whin/Gorse too!

[Backinwellies]

Why are sheep so stupid and wait to die ... when they are relatively easily escaping the minute you get near them?? ......  Darwinian way of selecting the less dumb sheep for survival? .... if so they should by now be the most intelligent beasts on earth .....   

[Fleecewife]

Once the sheep is trapped, it's its survival instinct which tells it to keep very quiet in the hope that a predator will not notice its predicament but will walk on by.  Once you, the ultimate predator approach, their flight response kicks in so they can get away and save themselves.  They tear out of the trap and run, which in that exact situation is the best reaction.
Think about it from the sheep's viewpoint, not the human's, and you will see that, for survival within their natural environment they are highly appropriately adapted.  Sheep are far from stupid!

[Backinwellies]

I get that .... but to stay in one place and starve to death doesn't seem very sensible

[Fleecewife]

Yes, well, evolution isn't perfect! It works in the moment, but I suspect sheep are not able to forward plan or strategise.  It doesn't make them stupid, just not as adaptable as we humans think we are.

[Penninehillbilly]

I get that .... but to stay in one place and starve to death doesn't seem very sensible

I suppose they don't realise they CAN escape until panic mode sets in?

[RCTman]

After being caught out a couple of times we always shear the lambs in the autumn.

[SallyintNorth]

I get that .... but to stay in one place and starve to death doesn't seem very sensible

I suppose they don't realise they CAN escape until panic mode sets in?

In order to escape once really caught up, the only way is by ripping wool and often flesh.  So the alternative has to be worse than that - and by the time the sheep realises it's starving (so the alternative *is* worse), it's too weak to struggle free.

I used to carry secateurs with me when walking the dog in wild places on Exmoor.  My record number of sheep freed on one walk was 7. 

[SavageU]

Could have written this myself. Got some Silver noses in and they have got so badly tangled.

We've mowed and hacked them but we need a strategy for one field in particular, the shetlands have done well trying to eat them...but look like they've had a fight with it by the end!