A Scottish Blackface sheep. Courtesy of Cape Elizabeth Police Department
A runaway ram in Cape Elizabeth has been found.
The ram escaped on June 11 during relocation from Richmond Island to the mainland. The ram bolted from Ram Island Farm. He was seen in Cape Elizabeth neighborhoods and near Two Lights State Park and Crescent Beach State Park.
The ram is one of a herd of over 50 Scottish Blackface sheep that have lived on Richmond Island since the mid-1900s. The ram was meant to live on the mainland over the summer before a return to the island in the fall. The ram was one of two that were relocated for the summer to shear their fleece and help manage the size and health of the herd. The escape was the first in the island’s history.
The ram who escaped is over 150 pounds, with white wool, a black face, and brown horns. He had been shorn a couple weeks previously and has blue markings on his back.
Local volunteers, police officers, and employees of Sprague Corp. which owns Ram Island Farm as well as Richmond Island, all searched for the ram. The animal managed to evade them all.
During the weekend of June 24-25, the searchers placed sheep wool in Two Lights area where the ram was located. “The intent of the wool was for the ram to think other sheep were in the area so he would stay put,” the police wrote in a Facebook post.
Volunteers located the ram and sedated him with a tranquilizer gun. He was brought back to the farm. In November, he will return to Richmond Island.
Richmond Island is a 226-acre isle with bald eagles, swans, deer, horned owls, and the sheep. Public access is allowed to the island for most of the year. It has four beaches and a two-mile walking trail, with camping allowed by permit.
Richmond Island was inhabited by the indigenous Abenaki people. In the 1600s, the island was used as a fishing station by European settlers.
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