The royal family made gifts of their merino sheep to loyal subjects as rewards for valuable service and to seal diplomatic alliances.Ĭaptain Henry Waterhouse and Lieutenant William Kent brought the first flock of 26 merinos from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson in 1797.
Exporting merinos was banned, on pain of death, prior to 1765.Īfter this date, limited numbers of the renowned Escorial flock were sent to breeders in other countries and closely monitored. The Spanish monarchy owned one of the finest flocks of transient merinos in Spain and tightly controlled access to the breed. Settled merinos ( estantes) had coarser wool in response to the harsher weather conditions they endured in winter, while the transient merinos ( transhumantes) were moved to seasonal pastures throughout the year and so developed finer, softer wool. Over millennia, various sheep breeds have been developed across the world in response to local conditions and selective breeding.Īs such, two separate varieties of the Spanish merino sheep emerged over hundreds of years. Human domestication of wild animals began with the dog more than 12,000 years ago and sheep and other livestock followed soon after.
