According to the website of Iran Environment and Wildlife Watch (www.iew.ir) the environment police in Khvaf [a town in Khorasan Razavi Province] recently arrested two poachers who had seized two wild lambs immediately after they were born.
Since the lambs were still too young and needed to be breastfed, it was impossible to return them to the wild. That was why they were released in the Salami Center for Animal Reproduction and Breeding.
Nurturing wild lambs before they are able to feed on plants is of great importance when it comes to lambs in captivity. Wild lambs must be fed fresh milk at a specific temperature and feeding them with pasteurized cow’s milk usually results in digestive problems and death.
“Not long before the two wild lambs were transferred to the center, a ewe had given birth to a lamb there. Ewe do not normally tend to breastfeed other lambs except their own young, ” said the head of the Environment Protection Office of Khvaf Abbas Taherian.
He added, “To everyone’s surprise, the ewe adopted the two orphan lambs. Protecting and supporting them constantly, she even breastfed them. How the wild ewe treated the orphan lambs should be a lesson to us as human beings who let ourselves take young babies from their mother just out of selfishness and cruelty.”
