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Sheep, scientifically identified as Ovis aries, are herbivorous ruminants classified as productive animals. They belong to the genus Ovis and have a temporal range starting in the Pleistocene. The longest observed lifespan for these animals is 22.8 years. Their habitat includes pens.

These animals are a source of meat, milk, and wool. The Unicode characters 🐑 and 🐏 represent them. They are the subject of the Commons category "Sheep" and the topic's main category is Category:Sheep. Descriptions of sheep appear in sources such as the Bible Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus, the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Zedler, and the Großes vollständiges Universallexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste.

The topic is on the focus list of the Wikipedia:List of articles all languages should have and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4. In academic contexts, the query "sheep" yields 164862 results in PubMed. Additionally, the subject is referenced by 4,759 other encyclopedia articles.