The aim of this project was to examine the effects of housing on the behaviour of the overwintered lowland ewe, to see which if any aspects of this husbandry practice give rise to changes associated with a reduction in welfare, and where possible suggest changes to housing design and management practices which could alleviate this. To facilitate the discussion of the practical work of this thesis, the role of behaviour in the assessment of welfare is pointed out, illustrating the effects of housing on the behaviour and welfare of other species, along with a brief resume of the nature of sheep housing and the behavioural repertoire of sheep in their natural environment. The practical work was made up of three main parts. These were: 1. A series of studies on sheep kept outdoors inextensive conditions similar to the environment in which sheep are thought to have evolved, in order to establish a basic ethogram and time budgeting for comparison with later indoor work. 2, A series of studies on sheep kept indoors in conditions typical of farm housing in order to establish changes in behaviour which could be associated with a decrease in welfare. 3. A series of studies on sheep kept in pens modified from previous results to establish whether these modifications could alleviate the welfare problems seen. The behaviour of the sheep in extensive conditions was found to be similar to that given in the literature. The main effects of typical housing on their behaviour was a considerable increase in proximity of other sheep, levels of alertness and aggressive competition for resources within the pen, in particular far space to feed and to lie near to a solid barrier or wall. There was also a decrease in time spent feeding and resting seen and in the allelomimicry seen in these activities. These changes are considered indicative of a lack of welfare in housed sheep. By including extra pen edges or walls in the form of solid barriers within the pen and allowing extra space up to 7n2per head many of these welfare problems are alleviated. While there were many restrictions on the practical work of this thesis, a number of recommendations are made concerning the welfare and design of housing for sheep on the basis of these results.

Situated at the two sides of Eurasia, Western Asia and China are both important centres for the origins of agriculture and civilization. Key suites of domestic crops, animals, and technologies were independently developed at these two centres. Scholars have been interested in seeing whether there was communication between these ‘nuclear centres’ in prehistory, and how they were influenced by each other. The domestication of sheep and goat, which first occurred about 10,000 years before present (BP) in the region of modern-day Syria, Turkey, and Iran, has long been assumed as introduced from the West to China, behind which there were population movements and cultural exchanges. However, this hypothesis has not yet been systematically examined. This is because in Western China there is such a complex distribution of wild Caprinae and Gazella species, which all have similar skeletal morphology to domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and goats (Capra hircus), and are difficult to separate from each other based on fragmentary and eroded archaeological remains. This project carries out a systematic osteoscopic and osteometric study of the Caprinae and Gazella in Western China and different Ovis species in Eurasia by examining a large quantity of the modern specimens. Systematic differences in correlating elements between these species were found to be related to the ecology of the animals. These criteria were applied to the archaeological specimens from five sites in Western China from Epipaleolithic era (c. 10,000 BP) to the Bronze Age (c. 3500 BP). Together with other methods, a process of transition from the local wild Caprinae hunting to the adoption of sheep husbandry was discovered. There might be complex interactions between the different animals and humans in the unique ecological and social contexts.

Sheep husbandry has been rising for a long time in the Czech Republic. The number of flocks of sheep has been increasing gradually, which is an evidence of their popularity among breeders. Thanks to the hardiness of sheep, their breeding is mostly concentrated in the mountaneous an submontaneous areas where they are utilized not only for prime meat or milk production but also for mainaining the landscape. The goal of my thesis is to evaluate sheep husbandry at two farms managed under conventional and ecological conditions respectively, in the submontaneous area of Southern Bohemia. The distance between the two farms is approximately 1.5 km. The same indicators ( ewe reproduction, flock management, nutrition, pasture methods and system of breeding) were examined at both farms. The data were observed during the period of two years ? 2011 and 1012.