[Jacob-list] Tail length

[gordon johnston]

Hi Katrina
Ah - does everyone dock?  Over here there's quite a trend against it, as Jacobs look so beautiful with their long swinging tails.  But I suppose it depends on parasites, weather, pasture, management systems etc.

As I understand it, actual tail length does not reflect exactly the number of vertebrae. It's a bit like the giraffe's neck, which still has 7 vertebrae, the same as humans.  The big difference is between the Northern shorttails, which have 12-14, and the longtails such as Jacobs which have 20+.
I THINK that what David Kinsman is investigating is the possible influence of Jacobs on Hebrideans when they were in the British parklands together.  Hebs are apparently shorttailed, although their tails look longer than others such as Shetland and Soay, which have really neat short tails. Presumably if some Hebs have 20+ vertebrae it would imply outside influence, and it would help for David to know the vertebra count of Jacobs to enable him to surmise the origin of the extra bones in Hebs.

Do we have any non-docking home slaughterers over there ?
Juliet in Scotland
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