More Excellent Soay Lambing Results!

We have really done well in the "genetics lottery" this year. Our last post was about the self-colored light phase success. Now for our other two groups - white spotting on self-colored black ("black and whites", or B&W), and extensive white spotting ("EWS") on any pattern.
We had a very nice ram lamb from one of our B&W ewes, Harley. The photo below is Hopi, a nicely marked B&W ram.

Hopi '13 - ram. Dam Harley, sire Rowdy.

 I still really enjoy the stark contrast between deep black lamb coats and the pure whites. 

The more exciting lambing result happened recently, however. I have been studying the white spotting gene, and I have a "new" theory about underlying genetics of extensive white spotting, and that it is different from the "gradual white spotting" I have been getting so far in my B&Ws.
I purchased an EWS ram, RBST, to see how this genotype worked into the flock. Saltmarsh Alston was a good sire for this trait as he is clearly "EWS". (Note in particular that his horns are about half-white and half dark - very nicely marked!)

Saltmarsh Alston '08 Dark Wild with Extensive White Spotting

 It has taken a couple generations, but I am now convinced there is a different "EWS" genetic basis for this white spotting. Here is our most recent lamb, Orvieto:

Woodland Creek Gwyneth and her 2013 ram lamb, Orvieto.

You can see that his dam has virtually no white spotting (although she has a tiny wisp of white, suggesting that she does carry the "regular" Ss/Ss gene). Orvieto has the typical locations for extensive white spotting - head, ears, feet, tail, and irregular spots on the body. 

Woodland Creek Orvieto '13 - ram

While he is very light in his brown coat, and his sire Alston has been shown to carry the light phase recessive brown gene, I think, based upon his skin color around his eyes, that he is actually dark phase. Since there is no pigment near his horn buds, I predict that his horns will lack pigment, that is, be white or "horn colored". Time will tell!

I'll close this post with an update on the  self-colored light phase (SCLP or "chocolate") Soay lambs progress. All are growing like weeds and all are "aggressively horned". They are sure a lovely color, and to my surprise there is some variation in intensity of the brown between some of them. 

Six SCLP Soay lambs play on the compost pile.

They are a lovely color and all growing horns aggressively!

Although they are fading a bit with sun-bleaching, one ram lamb in particular has always been very dark brown.