Joker Of The Week
Heard the one about the tartan sheep?
Well, you can see a couple, named April and Daisy, at the Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre in Comrie in Perthshire, naturally enough up in Scotland. According to the information displayed on their pen, they eat “mainly grass, but are known to enjoy Irn Bru (the Scots’ favourite non-alcoholic beverage) and Scottish Tablet or shortbread”.
When they are born, they are just like normal lambs, but after a year or so their coats change into fully blown tartan, Maxine Scott, the Centre’s owner, claims. Naturally, the wool does not go to waste and is used to make tartan kilts, scarves and blankets. What’s more, the variety of tartan can change, a reason to revisit the Centre.
Pull the other one.
The Scots take a perverse delight in trying to get one over the tourists. Resist an invitation to join a Haggis shoot. And this is another example.
Scott has been dying the coats of her sheep for the ten years that she has run the Centre, using a marker spray that farmers use to identify their animals. She claims that the tourists love it.
As a publicity stunt, it seems to be working.
