By Susan Milius
Darker sheep are bigger, but now we learn why they’re not better.
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Soay sheep living wild on the Scottish island of Hirta come in two colors: light brown and dark brown. Researchers have known that the dark sheep are bigger than the light ones. Extra heft translates into an advantage in winter survival and reproduction. “We would have expected [the dark sheep] to have increased in frequency over a 20-year time series,” says Jon Slate of the University of Sheffield in England.