Headline Story in Today's Iceland Review

Sheep Unharmed After 20-Meter Fall into the Ocean

The ewe Dollý, named after the first cloned sheep, swam ashore unharmed after falling from a 20-meter high cliff into the ocean by Stórhöfdi in the Westman Islands yesterday. The ewe was trapped on the beach for approximately half a day before it was noticed.

“I received a phone call from the excursion boat Víkingur, which had taken tourists into the bay by Stórhöfdi. They saw the sheep there on the seashore,” farmer Haukur Gudjónsson, Dollý’s owner, told Fréttabladid.

He went to pick up his ewe on an inflatable boat and take it back to the pastures where its lambs were waiting, pleased to be reunited with their mother.

Gudjónsson said it is incredible that Dollý is unharmed after such a harsh fall, although its temperament has changed a bit. The ewe wouldn’t eat the bread handed to it on the beach but ate it once inside the boat—it must have been starving after the ordeal.

The farmer said it is uncommon for sheep to fall off cliffs in the islands, although it happens on occasion in autumn when there is not as much grass to feed on and the sheep are tempted to graze close to the precipice.