- Partially sheep, partially goat - reportedly brought forth in the snowy conditions
In a rural area close to Glücksburg, on the Flensburg Fjord, there might just be an unusual creature roaming around. Farmhand Dag, who prefers to use only his first name, has his suspicions that Flumo could be a hybrid creature - a geep, the result of a sheep and a goat mating. The young male, with its white fur marked by brown spots, looks strikingly similar to Rune, the goat who's lived alongside a group of sheep in the field behind Dag's house for ages. The only ram in that flock, however, boasts dark fur.
This physical resemblance and the occasional goat-like bleats from Flumo make Dag believe that this could indeed be a rare geep. The hair texture and structure lean more towards goat than they do to sheep.
Goats and sheep belong to the same animal subfamily, the caprines, but they have distinct genetic makeup. Goats have 60 chromosomes, while sheep have only 54, making crossbreeding a bit tricky due to the chromosomal incompatibility.
A geep stirred up quite a commotion in Germany a decade ago, when one was discovered in the Göttingen district. Animal scientist Prof. Christoph Knorr from the University of Göttingen asserted that a sheep-goat hybrid occurs extremely seldom. The geep from Göttingen, at the time, seemed to be the only known scientifically authenticated geep in the world.
Costs have prevented Dag from getting the genetic analysis done for Flumo as of yet, but his curiosity remains piqued. He's already reached out to Prof. Christoph Knorr and the University of Göttingen, expressing his interest in the matter. As long as Flumo gets along with Rune, Dag hopes to keep the young geep in his care.
The geep that caused a stir in Germany some years ago was discovered in the County of Göttingen. Dag has contacted Prof. Christoph Knorr and the University of Göttingen in the County of Göttingen, expressing his interest in getting Flumo's genetic analysis done.
