this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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I remember watching this farmer make a case otherwise, that ordinary bramble (?) is specialized to ensnare and trap fluffy sheep, providing chemical nutrients to the bush.
An interesting theory, but there are good reasons to doubt the claim, including the fact that woolly sheep are a recent product of human breeding, and that wild sheep are not even native to the same areas blackberries grow.
There's tonnes of blackthorn and a lot of sheep in the UK and I've never heard it to be problematic. Sheep ate pretty dim, but bramble is definitely not thorny/spiney enough to get caught bar the odd occasion. I'm sure I heard about a shrub (African maybe) that sheep can get completely ensnared in and die, but can't find it!